When something goes bumb in the night
by Jibby
Summary: More than a year after the first season. Mimiko ends up getting herself into trouble when she decides to take her birthday off from work. There is also some trouble brewing both at the company, with secrets, and with some new black bloods in town. R&R :D
1. Chapter 1

Hey, This is my first BBB fanfic so I hope you like it. Please give me some feed back! (I'm only going to write this for this chapter, it applies to the whole story, I don't own BBB)

"I…..I have…..I have something I need to tell you..."

She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to complete this task. For months now, no years, she had been debating over whether or not to admit her true feelings for the black haired black blood. She never felt this way about anyone, nothing even close to this. Mimiko looked down at her feet awkwardly running her foot along the carpet, more to remind herself that she was standing, and that this was real, not an imagination.

A sad and concerned expression crossed Jiro's face, one that Mimiko had seen many times when she ended up in dangerous situations, due to her high risk career choice. Being a compromiser put her in situations that, at times, could get out of hand and become dangerous. She supposed that this was the reason that The Company had Jiro stay with her. She seamed to be given all of the potentially higher risk situations over the past two years and half of the time Jiro ended up having to keep things from getting out of hand.

"What's wrong?"

At first Mimko crossed her arms at her chest, for a long moment she wondered if Jiro was playing dumb or if he didn't have a clue about how she felt. Over the past two years Jiro and Mimiko's relationship had grown closer. Although they were still just completely plutonic friends, tension between them had grown to an almost unbearable point. At least on Mimiko's side it felt unbearable. She wished that Jiro would be the one to say something first, or to act first. Wasn't the guy suppose to make the first move? That's how it always worked in the movies….that was how Mimiko wanted it to happen. She wasn't exactly sure what she should do next or even how to put it. Grant it she had gone over this exact situation hundreds, no thousands, of times in her head…but nothing ever went the way she planned it. Mimi licked her chapped lips and took a long breath while glancing out the warehouse windows at the setting sun. She looked back at Jiro with a new calm, and confidence, she moved her hands to her hips, looking directly into Jiro's eyes.

"Jiro…..you say you've been alive for a hundred years…you say you can read people, you know when people are telling the truth or are lying….can't you tell how I feel?"

As Mimiko trailed off she returned her eyes to the floor just in front of where Jiro was standing. _Dam it Mimiko, that's not what I wanted to say, it should have been very direct….I'm a direct person…..You can do this just put some dam words together and tell him how you feel!_

Mimi sighed audibly as she was trying to think of something else to say without having to just blurt out that she was in love with Jiro, she didn't want to use the word Love. Love was a serous word these days and in the case of being rejected she wanted to be able to deny the whole thing as a simple physical attraction. She might have loved Jiro but she also loved being a compromiser. She was a veteran now of dealing with situations in and outside of the special zone. She may have just been a compromiser but The Company did recognize the importance and unmatched skills of the Silver Blade. Since their partnership Mimiko had noticed that her position within The Company had changed and she had a lot more influence on the overall goals and direction that The Company took with certain aspects of the special zone.

"Mimiko….It's because of who I am…I'm a black blood….I'm a vampire…Humans are naturally attracted to vampires…..It's not your fault"

Mimiko wasn't blinded by this fact. Humans were naturally attracted to vampires, she always thought of it as Mother Nature's way of letting vampires feed on humans. This natural attraction was what black bloods used to find a red blood in to feed on. However, in the special zone this was not something many would tolerate. Especially since the humans knew nothing about the different affiliate houses living here.

However, Mimiko also wasn't blinded by the fact that she interacted with black bloods on a daily basis. Every single day Mimiko met with a dozen black bloods dealing with situations that arose, and while retrieving vital information from all of the affiliate houses that assisted her. Even after dealing with all of these black bloods she had never once been nearly attracted to them as she is attracted to Jiro.

"I'm also the only black blood that has bitten you…it's only natural for you to feel a connection with me…"

Jiro stared quizzically at Mimiko as if to ask if he was getting through to her. For a few moments Mimiko stared back into his eyes with a sad and tired look before her eyes again dropped to the ground. Her shoulders sagged forward, which looked odd since Mimiko normally had spectacular posture. She took another deep breath and audibly released a sigh of confusion. She didn't even know what to say. All day she had been planning hundreds of comebacks for Jiro's endless excuses but currently she couldn't find a single one to fill the silence.

"Mimiko, all I'm trying to say here is that it's not your fault you're attracted to me, so you shouldn't let it bother you"

Jiro tried to perk up the end of the sentence to make Mimiko feel better; he even smiled to show her that everything would be okay. However, a long moment passed where Mimiko didn't move a muscle in her body, her expression didn't change, and if Jiro wasn't a black blood he would have thought she had stopped breathing all together. Finally, Mimiko took another deep breath and returned her gaze to Jiro. She was smiling, and although her mind was telling her not to, her body told her to smile, she had an actual genuine smile on her face. She wasn't exactly sure where it came from, but she was smiling.

"Yeah, your right….I didn't think of it that way."

Out of the hundreds of times Mimiko ran this conversation through her head the majority of them included what Jiro had just said. However, none of them ended with Mimiko agreeing that she was just confused about what she wanted. Mimiko knew what she wanted. She wanted love, she wanted someone to want her back and she right now she wanted Jiro to want her.

"I'm sorry Jiro, I'm going to go shower…..I feel gross, today was a long day"

Jiro smiled happily hoping that he had cleared this situation up. However, deep down inside Jiro also knew that Mimiko was not over this. He knew that a simple conversation would not clear up her feelings for him. He wasn't an idiot. Like Mimiko said, he has been alive for over a hundred years. Although he was in love with Alice Eve the entire time he was a vampire he knew how things worked outside of relationships. He had learned over time to discern lies, traitors, and crooks but he had also developed a keen ability for detecting tension. Within the past year Jiro had noticed a lot of tension between himself and Mimiko. It wasn't something that would ruin their friendship so he never mentioned anything about. He also noticed, however, that her hectic job, with The Company working her to the bone, she didn't ever go out to have fun with friends other than him and Kataro. He had mentioned it to her previously that he wouldn't mind if she went out on the town, however Mimiko just tossed it aside saying she had too much to worry about with all of the problems concerning black bloods in the special zone.

Mimiko grabbed some fresh clothes and headed for the shower, a nice hot shower was what she needed right now. While she let the water run all of the dirt and sweat from the day away she went over and over again in her head what Jiro said. Maybe he was right; maybe she was just attracted to him because she hadn't been bitten by another black blood or because she hadn't actually had a boyfriend worth mentioning her entire life. It wasn't that she was avoiding a relationship, it just never happened to be something that was a priority on her list. She liked helping others and caring for people, both red and black bloods. With her busy life she never had a chance to really meet anyone. Maybe all she needed was a night out to enjoy her youth and to clear her head. She knew she could at least use a large portion of alchohol to push the conversation that just occurred between Jiro and her to the back of her mind.

Mimiko slowly got out of the shower and took her time blow drying her hair and getting dressed for bed. She was exhausted from the day. They had escorted several high priority black bloods from far away into the special zone, and dealt with a rouge vampire that was starting to wreck havoc and killing red bloods around the 3rd district. As she stepped out of the bathroom she let the rush of dry air from the warehouse steal any remaining moisture left on her skin. She headed towards the corner of the warehouse that had been partitioned off as her bedroom. On her way she noticed Jiro sitting on the couch, reading some form of newspaper.

"Jiro, I decided that I'm going to go out with Hibari for my birthday next weekend, after the incident with that black blood today and all this hard work The Company has been throwing at us, I think I just need some down time"

Jiro nodded as Mimiko continued to walk towards her room; however when she could no longer see his face a fanged smiley emerged from him. Jiro thought to himself that maybe a conversation was all she needed. Jiro took a deep breath as he leaned back against the couch and allowed the paper to float onto his lap. He stared up at the ceiling of the warehouse and remembered the conversation that occurred between Jinnai and himself more than a year ago. Jinnai unfortunately reviled that he was no longer able to fight alongside Jiro like he had in the Hong Kong Explosion. Jiro was already aware that he was unable to fight, put up against one angry vampire and Jinnai might make it out alive, but more than a handful and he would certainly fall. In Hong Kong Jinnai had fought near Jiro almost the entire time, grant it he wasn't killing nearly as many Kowloon as Jiro was, however he was holding his own.

Jiro also specifically remembered the revealing moment that the Kowloon King, who Jiro so desperately fought back in Hong Kong, was being kept in the 11th yard. This fact was aggravating to Jiro, why had they not disposed off the ashes in the ocean, why were they being kept in the 11th yard? Jiro had pondered this many times and had attempted to ask Rinsuke however Cain and Sei hadn't revealed any information to him. (Jiro may or may not have used Eye Raid to ensure this fact) Jiro understood that it wasn't that Cain and Sei wanted to keep it from him, however the Special Zone had rules and one of those was that certain secrets were to be kept between the heads of the affiliate houses until it was necessary for it to be released. Jiro supposed that he didn't need to know why Adam Wong's ashes were being kept in the Special Zone, only that he needed to make sure no Kowloon ever got their hands on them.

Jiro finally remembered Jinnai directing him to stay with Mimiko, and to protect her and the Lord Sage. Jinnai hadn't had to tell Jiro to protect the Lord Sage; it was his job and life now to protect Kotaro. However, he had contemplated just as much over the Kowloon king as he did over the fact that Jinnai made absolutely sure he specified that Jiro protect Mimiko equally as much as he did the Lord Sage. There had to be some reason for this of which Jiro had yet had an opportune moment to ask Jinnai about it. Currently Jiro's thoughts returned back to the Cassandra and whether or not she was planning on attempting to enter the Special Zone again. _If she comes near Kataro again I'll finally end her existence. _Jiro's rage for Cassa was never ending, the pain she caused Jiro for betraying them and killing Alice couldn't never be forgiven.

Jiro slowly began to drift into sleep after he had laid his head back on the couch. He too was tired from the work that The Company had been throwing their way. The work did allow him to keep up his hand to hand and sword combat skills however, he too felt like he needed a little break. It didn't help that it had been a long time since he had blood that wasn't supplied to him in a plastic bag. Now that he thought about it, the last time he had blood that wasn't from a plastic bag was from Mimiko when Cassa was in the Special Zone. Jiro must have drifted off into sleep because that was the last thing he thought about.

Meanwhile, Mimiko walked into her bedroom feeling clean and fresh after the long, hot shower. She stretched and yawned several times as she checked her cell phone for messages and set her alarm clock for the morning. It was only Tuesday and she had three more days of work until the weekend. She texted Hibari

'Hey! Wanted to know if you wanted to go out with me this weekend! It's my 23rd Birthday!'

She placed her phone on the night stand as she crawled into her sheets. Mimiko loved the feeling of fresh sheets after a shower, it made her feel more relaxed and although she couldn't prove it she felt like she slept better. Just as she laid her head down on the pillow she heard her phone vibrate from a text message, obviously from Hibari.

"OMG, Mimiko you are SO OLD! Of course we'll go out. Boss said I have to keep you happy anyways. I just heard about a new place down by you in the Old Yard. (^_^)"

"I AM NOT OLD!" She hoped that Hibari could feel her anger through the phone. Hibari had just turned 20, but still, 3 years was not that much older. Hibari could be abrasive at times, but they were still friends. They had become kind of even close over working near each other in the past year. Being compromisers their jobs seemed to over lap almost on a weekly basis. Although Mimiko had her suspicions that the boss had added her happiness to Hibari's job description….she could tell when Hibari was being true or not.

"I'm just kidding Mimiko! I'll see you Friday! (^_^)"

Mimi put her phone back on the night stand and turned her light off. Her bed was by the window and she was able to look up at the clouds and moon as she was trying to fall asleep. She wished she could see the stars; however the lights from the special zone concealed them. As Mimiko stared up at the sky she slowly drifted into sleep as she rested up for another day of work tomorrow.

Hope you like it! Please read and Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Alright, Second chapter people, or person since I think I only have one reader. Anyways, thank you for reading, I hope you like this chapter!

* * *

She gasped for air as she flung her upper body out of bed and her eyes flashed open. Quickly looking around the room, her heavy breathing would have alerted any intruder of her presence. She searched the dark room for anything out of the ordinary, however, there wasn't, even the nightmare was ordinary. It was the same nightmare she had almost every night. Still out of breath she placed one hand on her chest to calm herself and return to a normal breathing pattern. Slowly Mimiko's breath returned to a relaxed gentle pace which made her quite enough so that she could listen to make sure she hadn't awoken Kataro or Jiro. After several moments of sitting up in the darkness and listening to the dead quite of the warehouse she slowly laid back down in bed, being extra careful not to make unnecessary creaks as she did. She tried not to think about the nightmare, she knew, like other nights, that if she did think about it right now it would only keep her up for more hours into the night, and tomorrow Jiro would continually harass her as to the reason why she didn't get enough sleep when clearly there was no cause for such a thing.

There was no use trying to avoid it this time. As soon as her eyes closed she saw flashes back to the nightmare. It didn't seem real to her, even at the time when she was having the dream, it was very obscure. However, the ending result of it every time was that Jiro was gone and she was left to fend for herself yet again. The nightmare never changed much. It started with Cassandra Jill Warlock and the Kowloon children devastating the precious Special Zone, she couldn't focus on any details except for Cassa, everything was obscured by flames. Eventually Jiro would enter; Mimiko would yell to him to save the Special Zone, to kill Cassa, however, Kataro would enter along side Jiro. It wasn't exactly Kataro however; it was someone less innocent than the Kataro she knew now. By the end of the nightmare Jiro disappeared with Kataro no matter how much she yelled for him and tried to grab for him. Eventually, everything was consumed by flames; she could almost feel the fire burning her skin whenever she awoke from this nightmare.

She must have fallen back asleep at some point after the nightmare, because the next time her eyes flashed open the blinding sun forced her to quickly shut them again. Slowly opening her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the bright summer sun, she glanced at the alarm clock by her bed. _6:30_

_Today is going to seem to go on forever, I still have two days of work left before Habari and I go out to the bars. UGH I wish I had just told Jiro I love him instead of letting him make me think that going out with Hibari was going to make everything better._

_**Yeah, you should have just told him…..loooooooser**_

_If I had told him straight up I would have trapped myself in a hole…and if I'm a looser so are you, since were the same person. _

_**You don't know that, maybe he doesn't actually know how you feel and maybe it would have convinced him otherwise.**_

_No, even if he knew I liked him, it wouldn't have changed anything. We both…I am you…we…..no…I…I…I….know that Jiro is and always has been the lady sage's. He belongs to her._

_**Yeah, but now its going to be lord sage, (Creepy) and Jiro has already admitted several times that when Kataro is mature enough returning the blood back to the Sage will consume him. How could you let him leave you?**_

_It's not his choice. He was chosen. Now shut up, I've got to get my lazy ass out of bed._

After arguing with herself for a couple of minutes Mimiko slowly got out of bed and stretched as she got her work uniform on. Even though she had had the nightmare last night she still felt fairly well rested and was ready for a day of work…whatever that might entail today. As she left her room and headed for the makeshift kitchen for breakfast she heard rapid and small footsteps running towards her.

"Good Morning Kataro!"

"Good Morning Mimi!"

Kataro ran over to Mimiko and gave her a large morning hug, the usual routine. Although she hadn't heard him enter the room, she knew that when she turned around Jiro would be standing at the other side of the room. She never actually heard him move from one room to the next, close or open doors, or walk on stairs. She supposed that was another one of the many benefits of being a black blood, no red blood could ever identify your movements. Like expected when Mimiko turned around, from preparing her breakfast, Jiro was standing there, he was buttoning up his shirt and tidying the last of his affects before bringing Kataro to school. After a long argument with both The Company and Mimiko, Jiro was reluctant to allow Kataro to attend school. Mostly to keep him away from direct trouble that may arise during a compromising job. Jiro insisted everyday on brining him to school and picking him up. It wasn't long before Kataro, like Jiro had wanted, made many friends at school. Since he was a very social and talkative youngster he was fairly popular amongst the children at school. He did have rules to follow, mostly about not allowing the other kids to know that he was actually a black blood. However, this was one rule Kataro seemed like he would keep. Especially since his older brother alerted him to the fact that if other school children found out that he was a black blood they would have to immediately leave The Special Zone. Not wanting to leave allowed Kataro to keep this a secret.

"Good Morning Jiro!"

"Good Morning Mimiko, how did you sleep last night?"

_**Terrible I had a dream you abandoned me and everyone else in the special zone.**_

_Shut up!_

"I slept fine, thanks. I'll call Jinnai while you are brining Kataro to school and see what he had planned for us today"

Jiro nodded his head as he herded Kataro, who was dressed in his adorable green collared school uniform, out the door.

Ring…ring…ring….

"This is Jinnai" He always answered his phone so seriously, no matter what time Mimiko had to call him, he always had a game face on.

"Hi boss! Its Katsuragi here" Mimiko attempted to sound cheerful and jolly to offset Jinnai's seriousness for every situation.

"Mimiko! You sound quite jolly for it being 7:00 in the morning. How did yesterday go?"

"OOOooooo yesterday? Well after gathering some intel from some of the affiliate houses we had suspicions about the group of black bloods you sent us to investigate. It turns out that they were devising several plans on kidnapping red bloods off the streets for 'fresher' blood banks. However, we didn't find any humans, or evidence that they had kidnapped anyone. When I told them they were going to be evicted and removed from The Special Zone and that they wouldn't be allowed back in, ever….well they weren't too happy…..lets just say they aren't going to be a problem from here on out. Jiro took care of the situation."

Mimiko wasn't very pleased with the situation. Taking red bloods and feeding off of them without their permission is not tolerated in The Special Zone. Especially kidnapping them and holding them hostage for who knows how long. It was known that on occasion The Coven house would take a human off of the street, but since Jiro and Zelman had killed anyone who would have been doing this; it was no longer a concern.

"I see….you're sure no humans were there?"

"Yes Sir, but we weren't able to check the surrounding buildings"

"Alright, Mimiko, I'd like you and Jiro to search the surrounding buildings today and tomorrow, see if you can pick up on anything. There are several missing red bloods within the city and I have my suspicions about that group"

"Alright sir, I'll report back to you if we find anything"

"Thanks, Take care Mimiko"

* * *

-30ish hrs later-

Mimiko looked at her watch. '4:30pm'. Her mind was currently divided between opinions on how she felt about working this late on a Friday. She and Jiro had been searching building after building for two days now and they hadn't found anything related to kidnapping red bloods. It was 4:30 on a Friday and she was supposed to meet Hibari at 8. She still needed to pick Kataro up from school at 5, report back to Jinnai, eat dinner, shower, and prepare for the night ahead. She hadn't even picked out what she wanted to wear yet.

However, the other half of her brain wanted to keep looking. What if some poor helpless human was in one of these buildings and because she wanted to go party they didn't make it. After climbing the last flight of stairs to the top of the building she let out a gasping breath. Grumbling about the heat and how tired she was, she was going to need a power nap before tonight. The two days had gone pretty slow but there was no awkwardness between Jiro and herself. She was afraid that after the conversation Wednesday night there was going to be a strain in their relationship. She was relieved that this was not the case. Jiro's voice pulled her out of thought:

"We best hurry and search this floor; we need to be back to the school in 20 minutes to pick up Kataro."

As Mimiko had expected Jiro was the one to call it quits, needing to go pick Kataro up from school.

"However, I would like to finish searching a couple more buildings….I got a weird feeling a little while ago that we weren't alone"

Mimiko's head dropped with despair, her mind was made up, and she wanted to go home. Her hopes had temporarily been lifted by Jiro's never ending obsession to care for Kataro, but the latter statement crushed all of her hopes of getting home at a decent hour. Sure she loved her job and loved helping people, but usually Fridays were only half days, and on the one day that she wanted to go out to on the town, it was a whole day. She started to abandon the idea of going out with Hibari altogether.

"Yeah, your right, we should keep searching after we get Kataro"

"Mimiko, you are going out tonight. I meant that Kataro and I could continue the search. Anyways, that would give you and Hibari the warehouse to yourselves before you go out tonight. Go home Mimiko, I'll finish this up and get Kataro. Tell Jinnai that we are still searching"

"Oh, are you sure Jiro?"

Jiro shot Mimi a stern look, she knew after a year of attempting that after this look there was no arguing with the black blood.

"Alright, if you need anything call, I'll see you later"

Mimiko waved as she headed back down the stairs to head home. This release from work gave her a new found energy that was sure to get her home in record time. While walking she dialed Jinnai.

"Jinnai" That same serious tone that he used. Although many of the compromisers found it intimidating something about it made Mimiko feel comfortable and trusting of Jinnai's character.

"Sir, Its Katsuragi, I'm calling to let you know that although Jiro and I haven't found anything yet, Kataro and him are going to continue searching several of the buildings."

"Ah yes, I remember Hibari mentioning that you two are heading out tonight. Thank you for updating me on the situation. You two have fun, and be careful"

"Thanks! Bye Sir"

As Mimiko hung up the phone she rounded the last block to the warehouse. Her pace had quickened with the burst of energy she had gotten after leaving the new district and heading back home. The sun starting to get low in the sky, however, since it was summer it wouldn't be setting till around 8 or 9. She thought about what Jinnai just said about Hibari mentioning that they were going out tonight. It even further made her feel like Jinnai was making sure she was happy by paying Hibari to be her friend, however she didn't want to think about this tonight. The purpose of tonight was to get her mind off of all of these little things going on in her life. Especially Jiro, she needed to give her mind, which was constantly thinking about this black haired block blood, a break. Maybe she could even meet some attractive normal guys. She whined slightly, she couldn't ever date a normal red blood that didn't know the truth about The Special Zone. She couldn't lie about her entire job like that to someone she was supposed to trust. This meant that she either needed to find someone to date that already worked at the company, someone who was closely associated with the company, a black blood, or just completely give up on the search for a boyfriend all together.

After locking the warehouse door behind her she felt the energy high of before waning down. Walking up the stairs she practically had to pull herself up with the handrail.

"I need a nap"

She whined once more as she plopped down on the couch and rested her legs on the coffee table and slouched down so her head was looking up at the ceiling. The warehouse was no high class flat. That was for sure, however it was a flat. She believed that they had done a nice job changing it into a suede-apartment. The one room that had a door, probably use to be some sort of office, was Mimiko's bedroom. She declared it hers from the moment she stepped in. One fantastic thing about the warehouse was that it had a huge bathroom that was adjacent to Mimiko's room. Although it didn't have a kitchen their makeshift plastic shelving and tables seemed to pull it off nicely. Most of the furniture was on loan from the company, Mimiko as still slightly upset about loosing all of her things in the apartment explosion. Dam that August!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"MIMIKO! COME LET ME IN!"

Mimiko's eyes flew open, the warehouse was dark grey without any lights on, and she could see the sun nearly at the horizon. _I must have fallen asleep_. The darkness in the apartment was inviting to her, her eyes adjusted quickly to it and she had no trouble navigating the furniture to the stairs.

"MIMIKO!"

"UGH I'm coming Hibari, hold on"

"Mimiko! What took you so long to open the door, you weren't sleeping were you?"

"I _was_ napping actually Hibari….I completely lost track of time"

"All of the lights are off in here, what are you a member of The Coven now?"

Mimiko laughed as she switched on some lights while walking around the warehouse. Hibari had been there once or twice before, she was jealous of all the open space they had. Hibari was already ready to go out to the clubs; however she always picked out what Mimiko should wear. Mimiko allowed her to pick out clothes because 1. she wasn't very good at it and 2. than Hibari couldn't complain about what she was wearing later. She had already headed to Mimiko's closet to start searching through her clothes. Mimiko slowly followed her, leaning up against the door frame.

"I'm sorry I feel asleep Hibari, Jiro and I had been searching some abandoned buildings all day looking for those missing red bloods"

"…where is that silver blade anyways, he isn't coming out with us? That would be hilarious"

Mimiko sighed "No, they are still out searching…..I was kind of hoping to get my mind off of everything tonight….work….black bloods….Jiro and Kataro….everything"

"uh oh Mimiko, you've got something you want to talk about don't you? I want to hear all about it!"

Hibari leaned towards Mimiko like she was going to spill the beans on the situation

"There isn't anything to spill….I just need a break from work and everything, you know?"

"OH! This is the one!" Hibari held out a purple shirt with a v neck and no sleeves. It had some ruffles on the sides that were thinning, not that Mimiko or Hibari needed to look skinnier. It was kind of revealing for Mimiko, but she trusted to Hibari to dress her to impress.

"Alright Mimiko, If you say you don't have any big news I'll believe you for now…..but you need a shower…..just saying….."

Grabbing all of the clothes from her bed and Hibari she headed for the bathroom to prepare for their night on the town.

* * *

I know so far I only have one reader, put please review, even just a one word review makes me smile! Thanks :D


	3. Chapter 3

Alright, Chapter 3, slightly shorter but very exciting.

Please write a quick review, it takes seconds and keeps me in the writing spirt!

* * *

The man was tall, muscular and attractive. He was dressed nicely, jeans and a dressy buttoned up shirt, and his blond hair was a curly mess on top of his head. He handed her a drink, making sure that he held onto it a moment longer than necessary so their hands brushed by each other. Mimiko blushed slightly at this encounter; she could feel the warmth of his skin when they touched which confirmed for her that he was in fact a red blood. She briefly debated over whether she was happy or sad about this fact, it slid past her quickly however since this was her 4th drink.

"Here you are, 2 apple martinis right?"

"Wow! Thanks these are great aren't they Mimi!"

"Yeah they are, I didn't think I was going to like them but they are very good"

Shinji, the blond who bought Mimiko her drink, set his beer down on the bar behind where they were sitting and took Mimiko's hand.

"Come on, let's dance"

Mimiko smiled at the attractive man, she was overjoyed at the fact that several men throughout the night bought her drinks and danced with her. She thought that all of the men were going to be all over Hibari and she was going to have to pick men out herself. Although it was different at times adjusting from interacting with a population which is aware of the black bloods existence, tonight she was not having much of a problem. Mimiko pushed herself off the stool she was sitting on and followed Shinji's lead to the dance floor.

The club was fairly dark with everything being different shades of blue, there were many people inside the club, most of them dancing but some where sitting at the bar chatting and the occasional were making out in the hallway. The speakers blasted a mixture of techno, dance and pop music that was easy to move to. The entire crowd had a similar sway and movement to the music of which Mimiko found easy to join in on, especially since standing up made her feel like the alcohol had rushed to her head. She was a fairly good dancer, although she never got to practice much, it was similar to riding a bike.

After a couple of songs had passed and Mimiko's feet began to tire from the tall heels Hibari had forced her to wear she pointed towards where Hibari and, Shinji's friend, Tai were sitting. Shinji nodded, as to say that he understood that Mimiko wished to return to the bar. As Mimiko began to walk she realized that she was slightly more intoxicated that she had planned. She tripped over the edge of the dance floor, and half expected to hit the floor, however Shinji had put his arm around her waist to brace her fall. After regaining her balance she again smiled at him.

"Thank you! I totally thought I was going down!"

_Really Mimiko? Totally? we only use that when we're drunk…happy birthday to us…._

"Not a problem, would you like another drink?"

"Yeah, another apple martini would be great!"

Tai stood up from his seat so that Mimiko could again sit next to Hibari, who seemed not nearly as drunk for having drunk just as much as Mimiko did. When their drinks were ordered Mimiko quickly downed most of hers while Hibari slowly sipped at hers whilst eying Mimiko.

"Mimi, I need to use the lady's room, will you come with me?"

"Of COURSE Hibari, you're my bestest friend!"

Hibari rolled her eyes slightly at Mimiko's obvious drunken blabber. The two headed towards the bathroom, Mimiko stumbling slightly over anything uneven on the floor. Once in the bathroom Hibari was ambushed by a bear hug from Mimiko.

"Hibari! I am having SO MUCH FUN! Thank you so much, this is a great birthday!"

"You didn't eat dinner did you Mimi?"

"No, why would I eat dinner, we're at a club"

"I mean earlier, you said you feel asleep, you didn't eat dinner and now you're trashed"

"Well I'm having a great time so it doesn't matter!"

"Yeah, I'm having a great time too, Tai is absolutely amazing, and he invited us back to his place. I think we should finish our drinks here and head back, what do you think?"

Mimiko looked at her watch "it is almost 2 that sounds like a good plan"

The two headed back to the bar and began finishing their drinks. As they were Shinji placed his hand on Mimiko's back, which was fine until his hand slowly made its way to her skirt. Mimiko pushed his hand off of her ass.

"Please, don't do that"

"Why? I bought you 2 drinks tonight and you are coming back to Tai's place with me. We both know what's going to happen, so you don't need to play hard to get."

"Wow, and that just lost you any chance you had with me"

Tai smacked Shinji on the back of the head "what the hell dude"

Mimiko rolled her eyes at the entire situation, although she was still incredibly intoxicated, giving away her virginity was not going to happen on a one night stand with someone she met at a club.

"Hibari, I'm just going to go home. I'll text you tomorrow"

"Mimiko, are you going to be okay? We can call a cab"

"No, its fine, I know my way home"

One last time she rolled her eyes and shook her head at Shinji, who had obviously just been looking to get laid because he had already headed back into the club to try picking up another girl. Tai grasped Hibari's hand as they took a left out of the club and parted ways. Mimiko slowly took a right and headed up the sidewalk to get back to the warehouse. She had about 12 blocks to walk, of which she was highly confident in the route to take. The streets were well lit by the surrounding businesses night security lights and by the street lamps that were at every corner. Although this was still the old yard it was still a nice, quaint area. This part of the yard was not rundown like some of the other sections. Especially after the Kowloon out break a year ago, much of the old yard had been badly damaged by the attack. Several blocks had caught fire and burned to the ground, however that was far away from this section that Mimiko was walking in.

As Mimiko was walking she passed a chocolate shop that caught her eye. The display cases holding all of the chocolate molds were up against the window so she could easily walk along the window looking at all of them. There were all sorts of sizes and shapes of chocolates. There were dogs, cats, baskets, cars, trucks, unicorns and many others. One in particular was very funny to Mimiko and it caused her to break out in laughter. It was a small figurine of Dracula, which reminded her very much of cartoons of Dracula with a large cloak and huge fangs that hung out the side of his mouth. Mimiko thought to herself that this figurine was more like the Kowloon children than Dracula. Finally, after carefully looking at all of the chocolate, Mimiko continued her slight stumble home. She took a right which would bring her 3 blocks away from her apartment.

As she walked up the sidewalk, still window shopping all of the closed business, it wasn't until a block and a half down that she realized she was not in the correct location. She had taken a wrong turn someplace and was now in the wrong section of the old yard. There were no street lamps here and the sudden realization of being lost and intoxicated pushed a rush of adrenaline through her body. The adrenaline made her recognize where she was and quickly she made a map in her head of how to get home. She continued to walk forward through the dark sidewalks. If she walked 2 blocks and then cut back to her right she would end up walking in the correct direction to get home. As she continued to walk she passed by an alley in which she heard voices. She quickened her pace. She wasn't necessarily afraid of who was down there, she felt fairly bullet proof and was confident that she could put up a good fight if someone tried to rob her. She passed the alley and as she continued she didn't hear anyone following her.

_Good they stayed in the alley_.

She slowed down her pace and the adrenaline slowly drained from her veins. As she was finally rounding the corner to emerge onto a more populated street two men taking up the entire sidewalk rounded it in the opposite direction. Mimiko hadn't heard them coming at all. They blocked the sidewalk in way that Mimiko had to take several steps backward so that she could see their faces. They were both slightly taller than her, one was fairly muscular with a well defined and notably large, muscular, neck. The other one was slightly skinnier, although he wasn't scrawny compared to an average person, standing next to his friend made him seem relatively small. The most noticeable feature to Mimiko was that when they smiled at her, both bared fangs that were indicative of their race. Mimiko stumbled backwards only to notice that there were two other dark figures behind her, she couldn't pick out any notable features. These must have been the men in the alley before; she couldn't hear them sneak up on her because they were black bloods.

"I am a compromiser with the Order Coffin Company. What do you want?"

Mimiko's words slurred more than she had planned, which gave away her drunken state, however, these black bloods would have already known that she was intoxicated solely based on the smell of alcohol coming from her. The skinner of the two men in front of her began to speak, while doing so he was continually grinning and running his eyes up and down Mimiko.

"Oh, we know who you are compromiser, we've been after you for a while now…..Just like you've been looking for our hideout."

Mimiko could feel her heart beat faster and faster, it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. Her hands began to sweat and shake slightly as she realized who these men were.

"You've been kidnapping red bloods for illegal blood banks"

The two in front of her smiled and she could hear the two in back of her laugh under their breath.

"If you hurt me, Jiro will have no mercy"

"oh we were planning on that"

The muscular man moved towards Mimiko, who was in a heightened state of fight or flight. She decided on flight and made a dash for the road on her left. She was only one step into her dash and the muscular man, quicker than Mimiko could even comprehend, grabbed her by the arm and pushed her to the ground. Mimiko put her hands out to catch herself, which was a mistake. As her body hit the ground her right hand scrapped across the uneven cement, as if in slow motion she could feel the skin on her right palm being peeled away. She heard all four black bloods growl slightly at the smell of fresh blood in the air. Mimiko closed her eyes tightly, there was nothing she could do, running was out of the question and she would be unable to take on 4 black bloods. She was kidding herself when she tried to say she could take on one black blood.

Her heart was beating so fast that her lungs could barely keep up with it. Her body shook at the pain that she expected she was about to endure. Although she hopped that it wouldn't have been, the only thing she could think of was Jiro. She wished Jiro was here, why wasn't he here when she needed him? Why couldn't he protect her when she needed protecting? Where was he? Why did he only care about Kataro? They had been living together for a year and she still felt like Jiro would risk her life any day for Kataro.

"Oh compromiser, you're always getting yourself into trouble and that Silver blade is rarely their to save you"

Mimiko quickly looked around to find where the 5th voice, which she almost recognized, was coming from. She couldn't see anything it was so dark out. Not only was it cloudy out, but it was also a new moon which made the night darker than it usually seemed. She noticed the figure approaching from the street and she immediately knew who it was. She could sense that the 4 vampires around her began to get anxious at this new presence. The skinner of the two was the first to break the silence.

"Who are you? Mind your own business and beat it, you'll regret not leaving!"

"You four black bloods think you're the only scary thing to go bump in the night, do you?"

* * *

Hope you like it! Review!


	4. Chapter 4

I hope you like this chapter, my reviewers made my day and enthused my to finish up this chapter, which I am a big fan of

* * *

As Zelman wandered onto the sidewalk the four black bloods seemed to no longer be as anxious about his presence. She heard slight laughter from behind her again; they were obviously not intimidated by Zelman's initial appearance. Mimiko had been under the impression that everyone knew who Zelman clock was within The Special Zone.

"You don't scare us. Four against one, I think we have the better odds"

Looking back at the situation Mimiko thought her behavior was a bit odd, that it was probably the alcohol speaking, but at that moment she laughed, enough to gain the attention of all of the black bloods around her. Zelman now stood close to her, almost standing over her between the groups. With still slightly slurred words Mimiko spoke as she stared at the ground trying not to let the alcohol get the best of her.

"You obviously don't know who he is…."

Suddenly Mimiko and Zelman were surrounded by fire, far enough away not to actually burn her, however close enough that her skin felt like it might catch. Being scared for her life, Mimiko's body pumped adrenaline into her veins again while her heartbeat still raced. She felt similar to the time when Zelman burned down the building with Casa, Kataro, and her inside of it. Staring into the flames she suddenly had a flash back. She lost concentration on the situation at hand and was suddenly consumed by her nightmare. Although it wasn't exactly the same as her nightmare everything was still consumed by flame. Was this what her nightmare was about; was Zelman clock responsible for the burning fire that awakened her almost every night? The fear and sweat was the same as it was with her nightmares, she felt afraid for her life but also helpless and alone. Suddenly a voice called her back to reality. The flames were gone but her skin still felt like it was on fire.

"MIMIKO! Snap out of it"

Mimiko blinked several times as she came back to reality to see Zelman clock standing over her. She looked around to see that the other four black bloods were no where in sight. Guessing what she was wondering, Zelman filled in the blanks for her.

"They scattered at the sight of the fire, I suppose my reputation precedes me….pity, I was looking for some fun"

He gave Mimiko a crooked smile and offered her his hand in assistance to stand up.

"You should be more careful to not walk home intoxicated and alone…..black bloods aren't the only scary thing out here."

Mimiko was reluctant to put her hand in Zelman's to assist her in standing; however she knew that she probably wasn't able to get up on her own. When she did Zelman gracefully and quickly pulled her up, making sure she was balanced before letting go. Mimiko blushed at the contact, his skin, unlike other black bloods, was hot, hotter even than her own skin. She was unsure of the reason but butterflies filled her stomach and she was unable to clear her thoughts, it was like her brain was cloudy, even more so with the alcohol. Normally she would look at the ground in this situation and attempt to avoid it however; her bulletproof feeling was still intact. She smiled at Zelman while he was still holding her arm making sure she was balanced.

"Thanks"

Zelman returned a crooked grin to Mimiko which revealed one of his fangs, his face and posture other than that was relaxed; this ordeal hadn't even fazed him. However, he quickly gained a lustful look in his eyes when he released Mimiko's hand. His hand was covered in fresh blood from her scrapped hand. Mimiko grimaced at the sudden pain that returned to her as she looked at her scrapped palm, there was almost no skin left on it. Fresh blood and a black blood never was a very good situation to be in. The fear she had for being alone with Zelman Clock returned to her, the fear was clearly visible on her face as she watched Zelman cautiously. Lust was still in Zelman's eyes; however it wasn't for Mimiko, it was for the blood.

He licked some of the blood off of his palm and closed his eyes as he savored the flavor. The metallic taste was something he was use to, after 800 years of being a vampire he had tasted all different kinds of blood. However, there was something undoubtedly unique about Mimiko's blood that was a rarity these days. He hadn't tasted a virgin's blood in almost a decade and the surge of energy he acquired from this small amount was something he had missed. Though he had wished it had been slightly fresher, after being exposed to the air blood immediately lost some of its potency. After savoring it for a brief moment he was easily able to refrain from wanting more of Mimiko's blood, he had learned over the 800 years to not need blood as much as younger vampires were unable to resist it. If he had been almost any other vampire Mimiko would have been in a lot more trouble. He smirked at Mimiko, whose legs were almost trembling she was in such a fearful state. He decided not to push her into any more into fear. He didn't necessarily want this rare compromiser who was so adamant about the welfare of vampires to fear him.

"No wonder Jiro keeps you around, a virgin's blood is always so precious."

Although both statements stung Mimiko, of which Zelman was perfectly aware, the first part was slightly more of an annoyance to her. Her eyes narrowed as she stared back at Zelman, the fear had wasted away from her, like Zelman had planned, and now there was slight confusion and defiance.

"You don't know what you're talking about"

"I've been alive for 800 years Mimiko; I know how humans and vampires work. In case you are debating it with yourself, let me clear the situation up for you: Jiro will always belong to the Sage; there is nothing you can do or say to change that. Humans never understand a vampire's dedication to their bloodline even when it is explained to them dozens of times. Kataro is Jiro's main and only concern, anyone else in Jiro's life has miniscule meaning comparatively"

Although it was true that Mimiko had been debating over this fact and slowly accepting it with time, this sudden and blunt statement stabbed her right through the heart. She looked to her side as she wasn't sure what her reaction was going to be: cry, scream or laugh. She kind of wanted to do all of them, in that specific order. Mainly laughing because all of this time, this whole past year they had been together, Mimiko deep down inside knew this exact thing and had repeated it many times to herself, however had refused to accept it. Now it had been forced on her from someone else to accept. It was like a heavy weight that was just released on her shoulders. That was the point of tonight, wasn't it? She wanted to accept it tonight, she wanted to move on, to allow other people into her life and not allow her life to pass by without some form of affection. She continued to look down and to the side folding her arms across her stomach as if to fend off the pain that was stabbing her.

"I know"

"And still you refuse….."

As Zelman was talking Mimiko wavered slightly her eyes almost rolling into the back of her head and the tall heels were making her top heavy. Zelman, fearing she was going to collapse on him, grabbed her gently by the shoulders to keep her from falling. He held her up as she slowly regained consciousness and came back to reality. He could sense the adrenaline in her veins and he could feel the rush of blood surging through her veins as he touched her exposed arms. Zelman couldn't help but think that contrary to the bland look she had in her work uniform, in normal clothes she looked quite stunning. It wasn't very safe of her however, to roam around the old yard dressed as she was, it was almost inviting to a black blood having so much skin showing, especially such vulnerable areas as her neck and arms.

He hadn't noticed Mimiko's attractiveness on other occasions probably because he was concentrating on some important matter and wasn't interested in red bloods. She seemed much too attractive to still be a virgin, he didn't know much about her at all and he figured there had to be something wrong with her, or some extenuating circumstance that resulted in this. It was extremely rare these days with how sexually promiscuous celebrities on television and in movies were. He missed the old days where any woman under the age of 20 was undoubtedly a virgin, unless they were a prostitute. He felt slightly bad about how blunt he was with her earlier about Jiro. She had to hear it though; she had obviously been fighting this fact for sometime now. He could sense that the large amount alcohol in her system was having an extreme effect on her senses; however he was positive that it was a combination effect of both his blunt statement and the alcohol which was causing her current almost unconscious state. She would snap out of it quickly.

She felt her cheeks blush a deep red when she realized how close she was to him. Black bloods were all suppose to seem attractive to red bloods, right? Staring at him for a silent minute she took in his red eyes and facial features that she was finding so attractive. Finally she snapped out of it and realized that she had been staring at him for some time now, although he didn't seem to mind much as he too was staring back at her. The realization of the night finally struck her.

"I don't know where I am….."

Zelman released her shoulders from his gentle but unwavering grip and closed his eyes; he began laughing hysterically at her. Mimiko also found it quite hilarious that she was lost in a city she knew almost by heart, or it could have been the 5th martini, she too began giggling slightly.

"Alright Mimiko, I suppose I should make sure you get home safe, can you walk?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine"

Stating this Mimiko began to walk in the direction she had originally been going. At first she was slightly tipsy but after a couple of steps she regained her footing and was walking fine. Zelman however, was not so sure that she was going to be okay and while walking along side of her placed his hand on the small of her back to help balance her. Although he meant this as simply a means to help her keep her balance, the touch of his hot skin gave her goosebumps. After the initial nervousness of being touched by someone so attractive passed, Mimiko found it comforting and affectionate. However, several steps later Mimiko remembered what had happened earlier in the night with Shinji and him expecting something from her after touching her. She felt the need to get away from his touch, she needed to free herself from this continuum that whenever she got close to someone they either expected something from her or pushed her away.

Zelman could tell that Mimiko was becoming more anxious as time went on while he was touching her. He could tell because he had 800 years to figure out how human's bodies react to different situations, and right now Mimiko was becoming anxious and almost uncomfortable. A normal person would remove themselves from the situation if they knew they were making someone uncomfortable, however Zelman knew why she felt this way and he knew that she needed to be broken from it or she would never be free. Zelman could smell Jiro all over Mimiko, he knew that he had drank her blood just days before he had first met Jiro, after August's attack on them. He also knew that it was against The Company's policy for employees to allow vampires to bite them. It wasn't a stretch for Zelman to figure out that Mimiko was victim of only being bitten by one vampire, multiple times. Leave it to Jiro to ignore this completely and allow her to suffer. Of course Mimiko was in love with Jiro, he had saved her life several times and had drank her blood, who knows how many times. Zelman had seen it dozens of times how attached a human can become to a black blood who have been the only one to bit them, even though there is no reciprocating affection. In fact Sayuka, his personal assistant who he had constantly drank from, was infatuated with him. Even though he showed her no affection and was often times rude to her. More recently he had stopped biting her because of this, however it didn't change the fact that he knew how she felt about him. Unfortunately for her, he had no reciprocating feelings for her.

To get away from his touch Mimiko took a couple of quick steps forward and spun around so that she was walking backwards so that she could look at his face while she was talking to him. She was normally very good at walking backwards. However, that was not in heels or while being drunk.

"Really Zelman, I said I was fine"

As she was saying this Mimiko's high heel slipped into a crack in the sidewalk and when she attempted to continue walking backwards she began to stumble and eventually her other heel also skidded forward out from under her. She gasped for breath as she realized what was happening and also realized that she obviously wasn't fine enough to walk home. She remembered now why she didn't drink; she hated feeling like she wasn't competent at doing something as easy as walking. She was a strong person and not being able to do something as easy as walking on her own was very aggravating to her.

As she was falling backwards she felt the heat of his hands before she even saw and comprehended what had happened. In an instant Zelman had caught her from her fall but had also taken the opportunity upon himself. She didn't think that she actually saw him move, or didn't track his movements. Zelman had his left arm around Mimiko's back holding her up from her fall, his right hand holding her other wrist out to the side; twisting it to just before the point it would hurt her. Holding her arm out like this exposed Mimiko's neck, and currently Zelman's teeth were mere millimeters away from her blood filled veins. Mimiko could feel his hot breath against her neck and although her arm should have been hurting her, the heat from his hand was numbing her arm which was almost pleasurable. Mimiko pressed her eyes closed; she wasn't sure how she should feel. Her heart was fluttering in her chest, she had butterflies in her stomach, she felt as though blood was pooling in her neck where his teeth were almost touching her, and she knew that Zelman knew all of this because there bodies were so close. Zelman pressed his body up against hers and the feeling of her fluttering heart and heavy breathing excited him. He pulled her hips against him and heard a slight moan escape her. He kissed her neck slowly hoping to woo her into wanting him to bite her. Mimiko swallowed hard as her body argued with her mind about what she wanted. Finally words were able to escape her, it was just a whisper but Mimiko was sure Zelman was able to hear it.

"Please….."

She wanted to stop here, her body wanted to stop with just the please, to allow Zelman to bite her. However, her mind was stronger and won this time.

"…..don't….."

Zelman didn't back off right away and Mimiko filled with wonder and fear of if he had angered him by denying him or if he was going to bite her anyways, against her will. She didn't say anything else; Zelman continued to hold Mimiko where she was while he whispered to her.

"Alright, I'll let you go this time Mimiko, but you need this, it will set you free and I promise you'll enjoy it"

With this Zelman pulled Mimiko up to stand

"Come on, you are in no condition to walk"

Before Mimiko knew it Zelman was carrying her on his back and her arms were wrapped around his neck. He immediately began walking with no effect in his stride due to her weight. The power gained while being a black blood was undeniable and Zelman found no challenge in carrying her.

"It's several more blocks to the warehouse"

"Thanks….again"

"If you don't mind me asking Mimiko, where is your family?"

"My parents died when I was very young, I don't really remember them…..why do you ask?"

"No particular reason, you almost remind me of someone, but I just can't pick it out"

"I'm not related to anyone in The Special Zone, and The Company raised me from a child, that's why I wanted to work as a compromiser"

"I see., I must have been mistaken"

"What about you? 800 years and no close friends or family? Must be lonely"

There was no answer from Zelman, Mimiko almost felt like pushing him to get an answer but after the events of tonight she felt like it would be better to not let the alcohol continue allowing her mouth to run. Mimiko began to feel sleepy and as they continued the several blocks back to the warehouse she began to drift in and out of sleep, however she was abruptly awoken from sleep when Zelman stopped walking. After knowing she was awake he slowly lowered her to the ground. They were across the street and slightly up the road from the warehouse. The street lights were on here and there were cars driving by on the road, this part of town was much more welcoming than where they had just come from. Mimiko started to walk towards the warehouse. She stopped and turned around to face him.

"What about those Black Bloods? They are the ones kidnapping all of those red bloods"

"I am going to go track them; it will be easy now that I know their scent"

"I'll tell Jiro, he'll help you"

"There is no need for that, I'm sure I can handle how ever many there are"

"I insist, you saved me tonight, sending Jiro to help you is the least I can do"

Zelman didn't say anything; he just smirked at her as she turned to walk towards the warehouse.

"Goodnight Zelman, I hope to see you around"

"I hope to see you too, Mimiko"

Mimiko locked the warehouse door behind her and headed up the stairs. Being that there were no lights on the warehouse was completely dark; she almost reached for a light switch but remembered that it might wake Kataro, which she didn't want. She turned towards her bedroom and slowly started walking towards it, carefully and gently enough to not make sounds that would awaken Kataro or Jiro. She was about half way across there makeshift living room when she froze in her footsteps. At first she thought it was just Kataro moving around in his sleep; however after a moment and her body's reaction to it she knew that Jiro was awake, standing someplace around her, she could also tell by the sound of his breathing and the grinding sound of teeth that he was not very happy. Over the past year whenever she heard the undoubted sound of Jiro grinding his teeth she knew that he was pissed off about something. Mimiko's heart raced again, the last of her body's adrenaline pumped through her veins. She swallowed hard as she tried to figure out where Jiro was. She was nervous, he could be anywhere, and he could be several feet or inches away from her. She just couldn't tell. She didn't know why Jiro would be angry; maybe she had misinterpreted a sound for his grinding teeth.

"Jiro….?"

She took several breaths before she got a response and it was undeniably spoken through clenched teeth.

"You reek of Zelman"

* * *

Please Review, it will make me smile! :D


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks all my reviewers, you make me sooooo happy :D

-What writing this chapter has taught me: I underestimated how difficult it can be to capture Jiro's rage and attitude, and I'm not sure if I've quite accomplished it, but I hope you like the chapter!

* * *

Slowly breathing, the hairs on her arm and the back of her neck were on edge. She felt as if anger were flooding off of Jiro and filling the room like waves in the ocean. She felt almost consumed by it, like she was drowning in this unfamiliar viscous emotion. Her eyes closed, it was easier for her to think, calm down, and sense when her eyes were closed. When she kept them open she was fighting with the darkness, trying to make out some shape within the dark flat. This allowed her to think, maybe of something to say, or rather, maybe something not to say.

_Is he mad? _**Yes, he's definitely mad**_ Is he mad at me or Zelman? _**Does it matter? **_Why would he be mad?_** Why do you think he is mad? **_Because I was with Zelman tonight? _**Duh! He's totally jealous. **_He can't be jealous, he just told me the other day that he had no feelings for me and pretty much that I should get out more. _**Well then he has no reason to be man and I think you should get mad**_, I can't get mad at Jiro….He's Jiro, and although he might not have feelings for me, I undoubted have feelings for him_**. Fine, have it your way. **

Mimiko suddenly snapped out of the argument with herself as she finally caught a portion of Jiro's shadow on the wall, she stared in that direction with no intention of turning on the lights. She still didn't want to wake Kataro and she felt like she had more courage with the lights out.

"What's wrong Jiro, _why_ are you so upset?"

Jiro was immediately filled with a mixture of emotions when he smelt Zelman walk though the front door on Mimi. A protective, jealous, and animal like instinct took over which clouded his mind and his judgment. It was the same animal instinct that took over whenever Casa was around, or whenever Kataro was in danger. Jiro gritted his teeth with anger as he smelt Zelman all over her. Although Mimi was unable to see him, Jiro could clearly see her as if it was in the light of day. He sensed where Zelman had touched her, her wrist, her hand, her lower back. However the most important one that angered Jiro the most, almost making him loose that last bit of control he had, was on her neck.

"What's wrong is that you come into _my _home reeking like another vampire!"

Mimiko didn't have any adrenaline left; she had worn it all out throughout the night. If she had a rush of adrenaline right now, she might have walked up to Jiro and slapped him across the face. Alas, the only emotion capable of being drawn was anger, unadulterated wrath.

"_Your home_? Ha! That's funny, the last time I checked this was _my_ home and _you_ were my roommates. How _dare_ you try to tell me not to go around other black bloods! You aren't even interested in the situation, you are just jealous. You have no right to be. Maybe you should find out what happened before you wonder why I was with Zelman Clock tonight!"

The animal within Jiro knew that there was only one reason Zelman clock would leave his scent like that on Mimiko. The only reason was to drink her blood. Jiro knew that because the animal within him felt the same way. The animal wanted her blood, even now, in her furry; he wanted to taste that metallic luster. Although years taught him to easily resist the urge, Mimiko's seemed as if it would be so much sweeter right now. Maybe it was that she was a virgin, or maybe it was this fury he could see that was hiding behind her eyes. Jiro's growled showing his fangs grinding against his lower teeth as he briefly thought about this. Zelman couldn't have her ferocity!

"_You_ shouldn't be going around Zelman, he is a dangerous vampire; you should make a point to stay away from him. He's just going to use you!"

Mimiko was completely fed up with Jiro's attitude, he had no idea what he was talking about, he didn't know Zelman at all, or else he wouldn't be saying these things. While she was becoming more and more irritated with Jiro she was remembering what Zelman said to her earlier in the night, about Jiro keeping her around for her _virgin_ blood.

"Oh, like you are using me? You tell me you don't want me and that I should get out and get a life, and then when I come home smelling like another black blood you immediately turn into this wild animal because you think someone else, _besides you_, drank my blood! Well guess what _Jiro_? He saved my life. Did you ever think that maybe you should be thanking him?"

_Thanking him?_ The jealousy cloud cleared out of Jiro's mind and what Mimiko was saying was allowed to hit home. _Thanking him for what?_ _What did Mimiko get herself into this time?_ Jiro kicked himself for not being there to save her when she needed help, but he couldn't always be around, Kataro needed protecting too.

"What do you mean he saved you? What happened?" Jiro's words weren't completely back to normal, there wasn't necessarily any caring in his tone, more of a demand to know.

Mimiko was aware of Jiro's change in attitude, she knew that the animal was gone and the Jiro she knew was doing the thinking. However, she wasn't going to let him get away with this one. He had gone too far, he needed to realize what he was doing to her. He needed to _grow up_!

"It doesn't matter Jiro, all you ever really cared about is Kataro, and Alice. You don't actually give a shit about anyone else in your life, so stop pretending! I don't care if I don't understand about bloodlines and all of that other bullshit. You're acting like a child!"

"Mimiko, I'm sorry. I didn't realize…." Jiro was now attempting to plead with her, now that he realized he had gone too far, but Mimiko didn't even let him begin to beg.

"It doesn't matter Jiro, you obviously don't care about me. But if you give a shit about those red bloods being held hostage I suggest you go help Zelman save them. I told him to wait for you."

Mimiko's heart, or head, (she wasn't quite sure which one it was), was right. Jiro wanted her all to himself, but didn't want to dedicate any of his time or feelings to her. It was one sided bullshit and wasn't fair to Mimiko at all. What was he thinking? If he didn't know what he wanted he should have just told her instead of pushing her away and getting angry when she finally decides to get some fresh air.

When they were both done yelling there was a long silence, it seemed nothing in the room, nothing in the city, was making any noise. The dead of night seemed to set in, consuming all of her senses. After several long moments she heard the door downstairs slam shut; Jiro had left and probably wouldn't come back until tomorrow sometime. They had never quite fought like this, not even about letting Kataro go to school. Mimiko didn't even get time to think about what she would say to him tomorrow before she realized how tired she actually was. She was about to move when there was a shuffling sound in the room, she froze again until she heard a familiar young, and sleepy, voice:

"Mimi…..is that you?"

She was slightly upset at herself for waking Kataro; she hoped that he hadn't heard them arguing, especially the part where she included him.

"Yeah Kataro, it's just me….I'm home"

"Where's brother?"

Mimiko didn't answer for a brief moment, thinking about the right answer.

"He went out, its okay, he'll be back tomorrow"

"Why didn't you go with him? You guys always work together"

Kataro's tired words were able to sting Mimiko a bit. She really wanted to bitch about how it was _Jiro's_ fault they weren't together, but this was not the time nor the place to do such a thing.

"Zelman is out helping him, don't worry about it, go back to bed Kataro"

"Alright, goodnight Mimi"

"Goodnight Kataro"

When she heard Kataro lay back down and thrash around a bit prior to falling back asleep she began to walk towards her room. She threw herself onto the bed and didn't realize how physically and mentally exhausted she was until she was already asleep.

* * *

Zelman slowly retraced his steps back to where he scared off the four vampires, he had wanted to light up a cigarette to calm his nerves, but the smoke always diluted a vampire's scent. That's why he started smoking in the first place, to mask his own scent when he was out on the prowl. Back in the day when you actually had to work to get some decent, untainted, blood he despised other vampires picking up on his movements. Centuries ago, when vampires weren't actually known to have existed, they had to catch their own meals. Not exactly catch, more like woo them into an alley or dark room. Since there weren't many vampires back then, they usually all kept to themselves. Like wild animals, they all had their own territory to keep. Zelman however, at the beginning, didn't have any territory of his own, so he skipped around Poland and other parts of Europe, masking his scent in case he happened to feed on someone else's prey.

Although he was probably capable of tracking the vampires even over the smell of the cigarette he didn't want to risk loosing the vampires if they had split up, or mask his scent enough where Jiro couldn't follow him. He chuckled to himself for a moment: the Hero of Hong Kong knew nothing of the relations between humans and vampires. Jiro's version of it must have been quite simplified since he had probably never made any real human connections during his life; almost 90% of it was spent with Alice, and the other part he was supposedly in some isolated godforsaken land up north. Zelman would be dammed if he would ever willingly be in a place like that. He had on the occasion over the past 800 years been trapped or arrested and detained on several occasions, nothing was long term. Although he liked doing what he wanted, and hated answering to people, isolation was not something he wanted to willingly endure, and where was the fun in being isolated?

Zelman paused, taking a deep breath of the night air; he could still smell, and see, the smear of blood on the cement where Mimiko had scraped her hand. The sweet metallic smell of blood filled the air around him. He laughed internally to himself wondering how the conversation, correction argument, between Jiro and Mimiko was going back at their loft. It might have been slightly evil, but Zelman had planned on them arguing prior to Jiro coming here. Zelman wanted the truth about what was going on between him and Mimiko, and he wasn't going to get anything out of him unless he was already heated up from an argument. He was well aware that Mimiko would be saturated in his scent, although Jiro's would still undoubtedly be there. He made particularly certain her neck would reek of him. If Jiro cared at all for Mimiko smelling another vampire that close to her neck would without a doubt stir trouble.

Zelman quickly turned as he heard and smelt Jiro approaching from the direction he had just arrived from.

"Thought you weren't going to show"

No answer, Jiro was still walking up next to him

"This is where I scared them off; they went that way into the alley"

Zelman pointed at an alleyway slightly up the road, he remembered them running that way and he could also still smell their trail. It was still strong too; the two of them wouldn't have a problem at all tracking them down.

"Are you going to talk? Or does the cat have your tongue"

Jiro's voice was flat, almost sad; he had experienced a back lash of emotions when he left the loft. Jiro was still deliberating in his head how he actually felt about the situation. He wasn't quite sure where he went wrong. He had never been the close with a human while he was a vampire and he couldn't deny the challenges he faced with it. He never remembered having such complex emotions as a human, although currently his emotions were mimicking that of humans. Usual vampire emotions were precise, everything was either black or white, but Jiro's mind was in all different shades of grey.

His question had a very slight, almost unnoticeable, curiosity.

"What happened?"

"What do you mean 'What happened?,' she didn't tell you?"

Zelman mimicked Jiro's voice and had a slight sarcastic tone in his question, hinting to Jiro that he was already aware of the situation. Jiro never said anything, he stared, not glared, just stared at Zelman, waiting for him to assume that he wasn't going to answer and continue with the story.

"Well these four vampires were pushing her around, when I got here it sounded like they were planning on killing her. They knew you two have been tracking them down all week. Anyways, as soon as I stepped in they scattered like flies…"

Zelman waited for Jiro's reaction to the story, he thought he should have said more about Mimiko, so after a brief moment he continued as the two old bloods began wondering towards the alley. They were quickly able to jump to the top of the buildings where they continued to follow the four vampires' scent.

"Mimiko was pretty shaken up; I think it was mostly because she was so intoxicated…..she should be more careful wondering around the streets of the Old Yard intoxicated and showing off so much skin. I think all the vampires here would love to get a taste of her….especially since she's a virgin….such a rarity these days."

Jiro was immediately infuriated just as he had been at the loft, he snarled at Zelman as he grabbed him by his collar almost lifting him off the ground. Jiro hadn't realized what he was doing until his hand was already around Zelman's neck and he was yelling at him.

"I thought you said you were saving her! Not using her you _bastard_!"

Zelman could have easily fought back and had Jiro pinned if he had wanted to, since he was acting so emotionally and not actually thinking about what he was doing. However, Zelman had done exactly what he wanted to; he struck one of Jiro's many nerves. Zelman was having too much fun pushing the Silver Blade's buttons, and he knew that Jiro wasn't attacking him because he was Zelman Clock, but because he was a vampire close to Mimiko. It was a predatory reaction; kind of similar to territorial fights…..they weren't actually personal. Nevertheless, Jiro's reaction had just answered all of Zelman's questions for him. Zelman chuckled:

"So the feelings aren't one sided…..you do want Mimiko all to yourself"

Jiro quickly released Zelman from his grip when he realized what he was doing; he shook his head to clear it of all the thoughts bouncing around.

"I have feelings for Mimiko; yet they aren't significant enough to matter."

"Well her feelings for you are quite significant"

"I am aware of this, that's why I told her that I didn't have any feelings for her and that she should go out to have some fun with friends…I didn't plan on her coming back reeking of you"

Zelman couldn't help but show a fanged smirk as he turned to continue walking. Everything was going exactly according to plan.

Although he was trying to hide it, Jiro was still significantly pissed off at Zelman for biting Mimiko. That's the only way he would know she was a virgin and Zelman obviously wasn't in desperate need of blood. He said so himself, that he didn't actually fight any of the vampires, that they scattered when he had arrived. Why would Zelman bite Mimiko if he didn't need it, except to satisfy his own greed for blood? Jiro knew deep down inside that he did have feelings for Mimi, however, it wasn't love, he didn't think. It was because Mimi had helped Jiro and Kataro out so much during their move and Casa's attack on The Special Zone. He had a want, a need, to protect her as she had protected them. However, instinctually he had a higher need to protect Kataro than anyone else. There was nothing that could change that fact. Another reason for Jiro's aggression towards Mimiko being around other vampires was that a very close friend had asked Jiro to protect her: Jinnai. Jiro didn't think it was anything more then that, she had just undoubtedly fallen for him and there was nothing he could do about it that wouldn't hurt her in the end. Jiro was, and would always be, in love with Alice. Although Jiro was trying to hide that he was upset, Zelman was perfectly aware of it.

Finally he let out an audible huff "Calm down Silver Blade, I didn't bite Mimiko, she cut her hand"

Jiro's anger immediately dissipated, but it would soon be replaced with anxiety:

"Nevertheless, you need to quickly decide whether or not you are keeping Mimiko for yourself. Don't just think about your own benefit, think about Mimiko…and about the Lord Sage"


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you all for the reviews! They really keep me going with writing.

Sorry this chapter took so long, I feel it takes me twice as long to edit conversations to make sure they are how I want them.

Enjoy (and please review some more) :D

* * *

The sky was just beginning to break free of night's darkness as Zelman and Jiro stood behind the police tape. A block away a 10 story building was shooting out flames as the fire department tired to extinguish the roaring inferno that lit up the dawn.

"I think you over did it, _crimson eyes_"

"I did what was needed"

"You didn't even get all of the vampires, one got away"

"I thought _you_ were getting that one"

The two started bickering about who was responsible for which part of the, not so well-thought out, plan as they watched through the police line at several humans being treated by an ambulance staff.

There were three girls wearing oxygen masks, sitting on the back of the ambulance as two paramedics attended to their wounds. They weren't saying anything until two police officers approached them. Jiro could hear some of the questions: How long were you held hostage? Who set the building on fire? What did they look like? How many where there? The normal questions police would ask, it could have initiated panic amongst the humans if Jiro hadn't used Hide Hand to block their memory of being rescued. Their answers were expected: I remember feeling scared and then waking up out here with the building on fire, I felt like someone knocked me on the head, I don't remember anything except those freaks that held us hostage.

"I was suppose to grab the humans you said, I quote, 'I'll take care of the vampires'"

"Listen Silver Blade, maybe you just need to be quicker, give it another century or two and maybe you'll be able to keep up with the fire god"

It made Zelman smirk every time he was able to call himself the fire god; it was on of his favorite nicknames that he had acquired over the years. Jiro snarled at the accusation that he wasn't on the same level as Zelman. He might not be an 900 year old vampire; however, he was more than confident in his ability to keep up with Zelman in a fight and on foot. He quickly dropped it and changed the subject when the three people they were watching were loaded into the ambulance.

"We need to head back to Headquarters to brief The Company on what just happened."

Jiro quickly turned and walked in the direction of the closest train station, Headquarters was in the center of The Special Zone, and since the sun was going to rise soon, it would be better if they took the train in. Zelman paused for a moment and didn't immediately follow Jiro as he left. He was staring off into space, in the direction of the fire, however, he didn't have any focus. Zelman was thinking back on the night, he had to admit it had been the most fun he had experienced since that Cassandra had broken into the Special Zone. She had proven to be quite the adversary; he had wished he could have fought her more without risking destroying the entire balance of The Special Zone. When he heard a voice and reminded himself that Cassandra was for Jiro to kill, that was personal.

"You coming? Or you going to stare at your masterpiece until the sun burns you up?"

"phft"

Zelman quickly turned and was almost immediately along side Jiro as they walked to the train station. Once at the station they were quickly able to board a train destined for City Center. Upon boarding the train both Zelman and Jiro noticed that there was only one free seat available. They both briefly eyed each other and then quickly dashed for the seat. It was only a brief moment from when they began to move to when Zelman snatched the seat. However, between the two points they both had managed to try tripping and pushing the other out of the way, it was fairly childish looking and afterwards the feeling that everyone on the train was watching them ensued.

"I did all the work tonight, I think I deserve that seat" Jiro tsked as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot at Zelman who was already comfortably in the seat.

"I don't think so, and what's your problem with standing, it isn't that long of a ride into City Center"

Zelman could hear a low growl in Jiro's throat that wouldn't have been audible to other passengers, humans, on the train.

"Fine, whatever"

Jiro moved in the train so that he could hold both a pole and the upper swing bar on the train. The monotonous voice over the loud speaker could be heard as the doors closed and the train jolted forward away from the station. _Please stand clear of the doors._ _Next stop 3__rd__ yard_. The train looked to be a couple of decades old, the paint was pealing off of every surface and the lamination on the floors was coming up around every corner. It smelled slightly of urine, body odor, and something else that couldn't be readily identified. The jerking of the train around the corners and over the bumpy track made Jiro feel unbalanced and queasy. He glared at Zelman who was seated comfortably, but still, looked as if he was concentrating on something. Once he caught Jiro's glare he began laughing hysterically at Jiro. _Next Stop City Center_

_**Thank god we're almost there**_ was all Jiro could think, he didn't believe that the train would be full so early in the morning. He hated standing in motorized vehicles. Even over the past century he could not get use to them, every time it made him feel like he was going to fall over. He missed the days of horse drawn carriages; at least you could control the horses, who knew what this motorized thing might do?

While walking into Headquarters Zelman was still laughing at Jiro's misfortune, although he enjoyed the opportunity to laugh at the Silver Blade, he too did not enjoy standing on any form of motorized vehicles. Zelman's enjoyment was short lived; however, as they were walking through one of the hallways they spotted Badrick marching towards them with a look that could kill. Zelman was always under impressed with Badrick's abilities, he was trigger happy and his personality had a tendency of irritating Zelman. He had no respect for vampires, especially old bloods. Didn't he know that any of the old bloods within The Company could kill him in less than a heart beat?

"What the fuck did you guys think you were doing! YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN THOSE RED BLOODS KILLED! Next time you guys are out there fighting I _demand_ that you call for back up!"

He had stopped in front of Zelman and Jiro, blocking their path to Jinnai's office; he always seemed to be yelling at other people, at his men, at Mimiko. Neither Jiro nor Zelman were impressed with his attitude. Badrick had obviously already heard about the black blood that had escaped as he was in full uniform, ready for the hunt. He was carrying his helmet under his right arm and his gun was already strapped, and probably loaded with a chambered round, on his side. He was more muscular than both Jiro and Zelman, and with the additional padding from the uniform and bullet proof vest he was easily able to take up almost the entire hallway while standing in front of them. Zelman crookedly smirked at him:

"I didn't see any of the _Suppression_ _Team_ out there. We knew 4 vampires were way too much for you guys to handle so we took care of the problem for you"

"IDIOTS! You let one of the black bloods escape! Now my team has to search the entire Special Zone hoping to track this guy, if he kills another Red Blood I am holding you two personally responsible"

At this both Jiro and Zelman pushed their way past Badrick and continued walking towards Jinnai's. They both knew that the best way to deal with Badrick was to avoid as much contact with him as possible. They rolled their eyes in annoyance as Badrick continued to yell obscenities at them as they walked away. One of the hallway doors they passed was slightly ajar; Jiro didn't pay any attention to it until he heard a familiar voice yell his name. As he turned towards it and started walking into the room he greeted his old friends.

"Sei, it is pleasant surprise to see you here!"

Jiro and Cain didn't exchange any pleasantries, just nodded in recognition of each other's presence. Jiro quickly glanced over his shoulder back at Zelman, who was now standing outside of Jinnai's office, about to knock on the door.

"No worries Jiro, I'll let Jinnai know that I took care of the whole situation, and you let that vampire get away"

Jiro showed his fangs and snarled slightly, still irritated at Zelman's 'always carefree, joking attitude'. Cain's monstrous laugh broke Jiro's irritated glare at Zelman.

"So it was your fault! We have just been hearing the rumors coming in from surveillance."

"It wasn't my fault" Jiro snapped back at Cain, he didn't want both Cain on Zelman on his back about something that wasn't his fault. He knew deep down that if that vampire did kill anyone else he wouldn't forgive himself for a long time, whether it was his fault or not that he got away.

"Cain, stop it, I'm sure Jiro did everything he could"

The room they were sitting in was a large open room with shaded windows opening up over the city. Although the sun was now high above the horizon, the room was fairly dark. The tile floor was grey and black which contrasted with the white walls. Large light fixtures encircled the room remained off. The dusk feeling was inviting. There were several different areas for seating, a glass table with some sort of board game on it, and several sofas and chairs around a fire place to the left where Cain and Sei were currently relaxing.

"Come join us, Jiro"

"Yes, come tell us all about your folly with Zelman"

Sei shot an angry look towards Cain, and although his eyes were closed and behind glasses, for the barriers sake, Cain was still edgy and cleared his throat and adjusted how he was sitting in the chair.

"Sorry Lord Sei"

Cain always gave a respective tone when he knew he had taken something too far. Since it was his nature to continue to pursue annoying Jiro, this happened quite often. Jiro sat down so that he could see both Sei and Cain, after a short couple of breaths he began describing to them what had previously occurred.

"We had been tracking these vampires to some old office buildings in which the upper floors were abandoned. There were three humans and four vampires, when we got close enough Zelman said he was going to take care of the vampires, so I was going to get the humans out of there. Zelman started burning things before I got them safely out of there. Luckily none of them were burned, one of the vampires snuck out the fire escape while Zelman was busy, I tried to get to him, but my hands were full…."

"At least the red bloods were okay" Cain huffed.

Sei could tell that Jiro was not only upset about one of the black bloods escaping, but that something else was also bothering him. Sei only needed one guess to correctly know what was bothering Jiro on this night.

"Jiro, I understand that it was Mimiko's birthday yesterday. Could you please relay to her that I sincerely hope she had an extra-ordinary birthday?"

"I'll will; however, I don't think her birthday went as she would have hoped. I'm sure I didn't help the matter either." Jiro dropped his head, ashamed of how he had acted earlier in the night. Now that he was away from Mimiko and Zelman he realized how obnoxious he had acted with her. He doubted if she would ever forgive him for it.

Cain laughed wildly; he couldn't help but taunt Jiro whenever the opportunity arose. "I'm sure; you don't quite help any situation!"

Sei clasped his hands under his chin and gathered a concerned expression.

"What happened?"

For several minutes Jiro explained in detail the past several days and how Mimiko had gone out with Hibari.

"….naturally I almost lost control smelling Zelman on her, I should have been able to keep calm, I'm not sure what got into me"

Cain exhaled loudly and exhausted sounding; he added his two cents prior to Sei being able to:

"You are such a child, you need to hurry up and choice who you want already, I'm tired of you jumping back and forth"

Sei didn't turn his head and it looked as though, if his eyes had been open, he was staring at the ground in thought.

"Cain, Jiro has never had to deal with red blood and black blood feelings like this, you shouldn't be so harsh."

"What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Jiro, there is a reason why there is a rule against any employee of the Order Coffin Company being bitten by a black blood. The major reason against it is that it carries an addictive side effect."

"What do you mean it carries an addictive side effect?"

Sei attempted to explain

"It's different from Black bloods biting each other than a black blood biting a red blood."

Cain quickly picked up where Sei was unable to explain it thoroughly enough for Jiro to understand:

"Yeah, he means when you're the only black blood to bite a red blood they get addicted to you, not the bite. It's annoying to see her head over heels for you, and she can't even help it"

"I feel Mimiko would have feelings for Jiro, even if you hadn't bitten her, but in the state she is in, it would be impossible for her to move on even if she wanted to."

"….So, this is all my fault"

"Yeah, pretty much"

Satisfied at winning the ultimate taunt of the day Cain leaned back and put his feet up on the center table, as if to signify his victory.

"So what, I need to go tell her to go get bitten by another vampire?"

"Being bitten by any black blood will take care of any addiction, after multiple black blood bites the addictive nature ceases…..However, I don't believe that telling her she need to be bitten would be the best course of action. You should avoid biting her and maybe keep some distance from her, avoid telling her what we've discussed here…but I have been meaning to discuss something of significant value with you Jiro…"

"What is it?"

"Before you start keeping your distance from Mimiko, have you completely decided that you want her to go to another black blood?...you should decide whether you want her for yourself or not."

Sei paused for a moment but quickly started again before Jiro had time to argue.

"You can't hide your feelings for Mimiko from everyone, Jiro. If you didn't want her, you wouldn't have reacted so harshly when she smelt so strongly of another black blood."

"Why would I want her to myself? Whether I have feelings for her or not, I have no choice in the matter, I belong to Alice; I have a dedication to my bloodline that cannot be ignored."

After hearing this Cain sat back up, he bowed his head and ran his hands over his face and through his hair, resting the top of his head in his large palms. Without looking at Jiro, he knew the next thing he said would either send Jiro into a coma or send him out the door in a denial induced rage. He only hoped that if it were the latter he would come to terms with it prior to seeing Mimiko again.

"Jiro, eventually you have to come to terms with this: Alice died, Kataro is the new the Lord Sage."


	7. Chapter 7

Hey! Thanks to all my reviewers! Its funny, every time I leave something to question for the next chapter, ya'll comment about it before hand! I guess I'm too predictable...

Please continue to review, they keep my hope up that someone can follow my manic thoughts.  
I hope you enjoy this chapter! More to come.

Cheers!  
Jibby

* * *

Mimiko jerked awake, she had awoken from yet another nightmare. The bright morning sun piercing through her window caused her to lock her eyes closed and wince from the pain as a headache slapped her across the face. She managed to find the pain meds and the water on her night stand without opening her eyes. As she swallowed the pills she prayed that they would kick in quickly, as all different muscles in her body were starting to ache. She hadn't had a hangover in quite some time; however, she definitely didn't miss it. As her head was pounding she laid back down in bed and stared up at the blank ceiling above her. She always seemed to wake up from nightmares; however, this nightmare was slightly different from the others. She pondered over the differences: instead of the dream ending with Jiro and Kataro walking away from her, it continued. The fire from earlier in the dream returned and filled her surreal visions with flames; they surrounded her and were so hot that the burning and singeing feeling was what awoke her from the delusions.

A creaking sound came from outside of her door.

"Kataro? Is that you?"

Her bedroom door opened slightly and a young golden haired boy stuck his head inside. Kataro was still in his pajamas and contrary to his normal overly cheerful morning greeting, he looked rather sad and depressed.

"What's wrong Kataro, come in here"

Kataro slowly wondered into Mimiko's bedroom, tip toeing as if he knew Mimiko's head was having tremors from every sound; he sat on the edge of her bed not looking at Mimiko, but staring at his feet. Mimiko sat up slowly, as to not upset her stomach, and moved closer to Kataro.

"What's going on Kataro? What's wrong?"

Kataro chewed on his lip for a couple moments before blurting out the reason for his distress.

"I heard brother and you fighting last night….."

Mimiko was expecting that this was the cause of his distress. She hoped that he only heard part of the argument and that he wasn't listening to the entire thing. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to explain what they were arguing about to a 12 year old. She and Jiro had exchanged some mean words last night; Kataro didn't need to hear them fighting like that. He was so blissful and full of joy, hearing is older brother yelling and arguing was probably not the best thing for him to hear.

"Oh Kataro, I'm so sorry, you weren't suppose to hear any of that. I'm sorry we woke you up"

"…why were you guys arguing about Zelman and those other Black Bloods?"

"Well Kataro,"

Mimiko stalled with a long pause to make sure she knew what she wanted to say to Kataro before blurting it out. She had to be delicate, not only because she was talking to a 12 year old, but also because Kataro was Jiro's younger brother. Upsetting Kataro or telling him something he wasn't supposed to know would undoubtedly upset Jiro. Kataro also never hid anything from Jiro, so anything that Mimiko told Kataro, would eventually land in Jiro's ear.

"It's difficult to explain why we were arguing….your brother was upset that I had gotten myself into a dangerous situation….and I was upset because he always thinks he needs to protect me"

"Why don't you want big brother to protect you?" Kataro whined slightly.

"Its not that I don't want him to protect me, it's just that, well it's okay if other people protect me too, like Zelman."

Kataro looked up at the ceiling for a moment as if pondering over if what Mimiko said was logical or not. When he returned to looking at Mimiko the happy-go-lucky Kataro had returned and he was smiling like always.

"OH YAY! I guess you're right. Zelman did help me out that time that the Kowloon were in the Special Zone."

Mimiko smiled at saying the right thing to Kataro to keep him from prodding at why Jiro was so jealous. Apparently Kataro had just heard the end of there argument and not the entirety of it. Kataro swung his legs and jumped up from sitting on Mimiko's bed. He ran around the room with his arms out like an airplane, his stomach began to growl he stopped in the middle of the room and excitedly looked up at Mimi.

"Hey Mimi, brother isn't back yet, Can we go out to breakfast? PLLLEEEEASSEEE!"

Just hearing the word breakfast made Mimiko have to hold back the nauseous reaction building in her stomach to prevent her from having to run to the bathroom to vomit up anything left from last night. She wasn't sure how being around food was going to make her feel, however, she could almost never say no to Kataro's adorable pleadings.

"Sure, go get dressed and I'll get ready to go too"

"YES!" Kataro ran out of Mimiko's room to the other side of the warehouse where he and Jiro slept, with his arms still out and making airplane noises.

Mimiko briefly laid back down before attempting to get up from her soft and comfy bed. When her head hit the pillow she had a vivid and painful flashback to the previous night. She remembered sitting on the concrete sidewalk, being surrounded by flames and seeing Zelman smirk as the other vampires ran off into the night. The flashback also reminded her of the pain her hand was in from scrapping it across the coarse concrete.

Almost as quickly as the flashback began, it ended. Mimiko sat up and looked at her hand that was skinned from the previous night. There was a large section of skin missing from the outside of her palm. It wasn't bleeding anymore; however, unless she put something on it, it was definitely going to become infected. Mimiko took a deep breath:

_was Zelman what I've been dreaming about all of this time?_

_**Probably, he did burn that building down while you and Kataro were still inside**_

_Yeah, but that was a long time ago_

_**And you've been having these nightmares pretty much since then**_

_What does it mean? I don't understand, Zelman could have easily had his way with me but he didn't, why?_

_**Maybe he doesn't want to force you into something you didn't want**_

_Let's not make a saint out of a sinner now, Zelman may have saved me, but he has his evil ways, he is the leader of The Coven after all_

_**He was probably just scared of what Jiro would do if he had bitten you. He didn't even bite you and look how Jiro reacted. **_

_Jiro…._

_**Yeah, Jiro, he owes us an apology**_

_I owe him an apology too; I said some things I shouldn't have…._

_**He said worse things, and anyways, you have an excuse, you were more plastered than you were on your 21**__**st**__** birthday!**_

Both sides of Mimiko's mind could agree on one thing: _Silly boys, they never know what they want!_

Mimiko forced herself to get up out of bed, but continued thinking about the previous night and tried to put it all together. There were several large sections of her night that were blurry, she remembered almost the entire thing, but some of the details were a bit fuzzy. She was interested in knowing what had happened after Jiro and Zelman went after the Black Bloods.

* * *

Jiro bowed his head in dismay; he clenched the edges of the cushion he was seated on with his fists to avoid lashing out. The darkness of the room blanketed his face from his friends. Although they couldn't see his reaction they could read his emotions like a book and knew to give him a moment. A long moment passed while Sei and Cain waited for Jiro's response to his friends confronting him about his love, Alice Eve. Eventually, Jiro took several short, labored breaths before going on. His voice was low, quite, and had a slight edge of angry. The anger, however, wasn't directed at Sei or Cain; it was directed at an unidentifiable party, as if cursing whatever god their might be for his plight.

"You think I don't know that? You think that every time I look at Kataro I'm not reminded of what I lost. No, it wasn't lost; it was stolen from me. I should have been able to protect her. I accepted many years ago that Alice Eve was gone, and that the Lord Sage was now my brother, my blood brother…..but I will never forgive _Cassa_."

Cain sighed at Jiro, he always thought he was so immature. Highly talented with a blade? yes; Having the maturity level of an Old Blood? No. However, in this instance he understood Jiro's need for vengeance against Cassa.

"Jiro, you'll have your revenge on Cassa someday, but you can't continue blaming yourself for what happened to Alice. Cassa betrayed us all; none of us could have expected what happened during the Kowloon Shock. Alice wasn't the only loved one lost in Hong Kong."

Sei began questioning Jiro before he was able to respond to Cain's insight.

"Why is it, than, that you continue to deny yourself of Mimiko?"

Jiro snapped his head to looking at Sei; his face was overwhelmed with sadness, and slightly of sympathy.

"What's the point? Mimiko has been through enough, she doesn't need someone else in her life to disappear. She should find someone who can always be there for her…."

Sei pushed the bridge of his glasses back up onto his nose as he thought over what Jiro said. Although Sei's eyes remained closed, Jiro felt as if Lord Sei's critical eyes were upon him.

"Are you implying when you return your blood to the Lord Sage?"

"Yes-"

"It is only a 50 percent chance that you won't survive returning the blood to the Sage."

Jiro sat up in the couch, no longer making eye contact with Sei or Cain.

"I am aware of my chances, but they still aren't very good odds."

Cain crossed his arms in his chair with a smug look across his face.

"So you are making the decision for Mimiko. Are you protecting Mimiko, or are you really just protecting yourself?"

* * *

Zelman had burst into Jinnai's office and was now sitting comfortably in one the sofa chairs. He was sitting crooked in the chair with one knee pulled up to his chest, his foot wedged between the arm and the seat. He rested his head in his palm and his elbow on his knee. He was quite bored, and after the night's excitement he was ready to sleep off this day. He had been explaining the previous night to Jinnai and had just gotten past the part where he saved Mimiko. Jinnai seemed eager and nervous; he was tapping his fingers on the desk as Zelman explained the details.

"Is she okay? Was Mimiko injured at all?"

"No, she's fine, well she did scrap her hand, but it's nothing to worry about"

"Did you take her to a hospital?"

"No, I took her home; it wasn't that big of a deal."

Jinnai stopped tapping his fingers and took a deep breath as Zelman explained how Jiro and he had found the black bloods.

"One of the black bloods got away from us. Now that I think about it, it might have been a good thing. While I was in there I smelt several other vampire scents that were fairly fresh. It's possible that this is just the tip of the iceberg…"

"Did Jiro mention if Mimiko was shaken up? That must have been quite traumatic, especially on her birthday"

Jinnai continued talking under his breath "_Jiro should have been there to protect her_"

"I didn't know it was her birthday, I'll have to wish her a happy birthday when I see her next"

"Yes, she was out celebrating with another Compromiser, Hibari," again Jinnai continued talking under his breath "_and I don't know why Hibari wasn't with her_"

This was one of the first times that Zelman was talking to Jinnai without anyone else in the room. Normally it would be all of the heads of houses talking with both Jinnai and other members of The Company. He was bored continually talking about what had happened over the past several hours, and didn't necessarily want to be here. However, he was slightly interested in Jinnai's anxiety related to these vampires. Having been alive over 800 years told him that Jinnai was hiding something about this situation.

"Did you know who these vampires were?"

"No, I had sent Jiro and Mimiko out over the past week searching for them, I know of there group, but not of them specifically"

"What does this have to do with?"

"Some sort of illegal blood blank operation, they have been taking red bloods of the streets for weeks now. There were a total of 13 people missing; the three you guys found make it so 10 are still missing. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing if any others are still alive, or if they are going to start washing up on the beaches….._Thank god Mimiko wasn't the next one_"

"If you don't think Mimiko is capable of taking care of herself why did you partner her with Jiro, obviously that puts her in dangerous situations?"

Jinnai didn't move for a brief moment, he didn't breathe or twitch or blink. When he did begin to breath again he began tapping his fingers on the desk.

"I know Mimiko is capable taking care of herself, with Jiro around he is able to protect her more than she could protect herself. Mimiko could never defend herself against four black bloods."

"You don't seem too worried about the other compromisers though. And they don't have Jiro to protect them against the _evils_ of The Special Zone. What about Hibari? Aren't you worried where she is?"

There was along pause before Jinnai answered, he wasn't looking at Zelman, he was nervous about this one-on-one meeting with Zelman. He knew Zelman's tendencies and didn't want this meeting to last longer than it needed too. He had wished that Jiro had explained the night to him. Wanting to end the conversation and keep Zelman from poking his nose any deeper, Jinnai began to be short and tempered with Zelman.

"Hibari is more wild and unleashed than Mimiko, I'm sure she went home with someone…"

This was an answer Zelman hadn't been anticipating. He was expecting that Jinnai knew something about these black bloods, but now he was convinced that Jinnai knew something about Mimiko that she didn't yet know.

"So, how did Mimiko's parents die?"

Jinnai immediately stopped tapping his fingers, his face turned white as the blood drained out of it. Jinnai was still nervous about how he worded every phrase as Zelman dug deep. This question, however, made Jinnai ask himself:_ Did he figure it out_. Jinnai stood up and put his palms on the edge of the desk.

"That is none of your concern; I think our meeting is done here"

Zelman didn't move and inch at Jinnai's intimidation, he was just getting started and this was almost getting exciting.

"You knew them, didn't you? Mimiko doesn't know that you knew her parents, does she?"

Jinnai, without knowing it, glanced at a picture on his desk. A small portrait set up in the corner. He closed his eyes briefly as he went to return staring at Zelman to reiterate that this meeting was over. However, when Jinnai opened his eyes Zelman was already standing in front of his desk, holding the portrait that he had glanced at. Jinnai had forgotten how quick black bloods were and wished now that his instinct wasn't to look at this picture. He tried to grab the picture back from Zelman, who immediately took a step back out of Jinnai's reach.

Zelman studied the portrait that was of Jinnai, another man, and a woman. Jinnai and the other man looked almost identical; however, Jinnai seemed to be slightly younger than the man. The man was holding the woman's hand and they were all dressed fairly casually. The background seemed to be at a beach or a lake. The woman in the photo looked undeniably similar to Mimiko. _This is what he had been trying to hide_

"Mimiko doesn't know that you're her uncle, does she?"

Jinnai fell back into sitting in his chair; he ran his hand over his face as to grasp a hold of the situation. He had been hiding this fact for almost 15 years now and Zelman had figured it out in less than 15 minutes. Had anyone else figured it out by now? Who would Zelman tell? Could he convince Zelman to keep it from spreading around? A large gasp escaped him. He didn't say anything, just nodded to Zelman's question. As Jinnai was about to start speaking, to plea with Zelman to keep it a secret the large door to his office flew open. Both Zelman and Jinnai immediately snapped to looking at it.

In the doorway Mimiko was standing, staring at Jinnai. Mimiko's eyes were filled with tears that were streaming down her face. She didn't break the stare she had with Jinnai, as her tear broken voice screamed at them, so loud that everyone on the floor could hear.

"Is it true!"


	8. Chapter 8

_Next chapter!_ I hope you like this one, sorry it took a little bit longer to write than normal.

_Funny note: I know my spelling/grammer isn't termendous by any means, however, whilst I was writing this chapter I found that my Word had been autocorrecting all of my 'previous' to 'pervious' ...don't know how long that was going on, but its fixed! Hahaha._

_Anyways, Thank you SO much for the reviews I love ALL of you that are reading this! It makes my day anytime i read a review! _

_~Jibby_

* * *

_Step back in time to just before Mimiko enters_

Mimiko pushed the top button on the keypad as she entered the elevator. Mirrors surrounded the inside of the elevator, the walls and the ceiling. She held the door to make sure Kataro entered before the doors began to close. Even the doors on the elevator were shiny and had a golden reflection. Mimiko couldn't help but stare at her own regal-looking reflection as they slowly rose to the top floor. She wore a floral sundress and flip flops, her wardrobe choice mainly lied with the fact that it was easier to wear than going through the work of finding a top and shorts that matched. It was also the weekend, thus she didn't need to wear her uniform and was hoping to go lay on the beach or in a park later on in the day. Every note of the lame elevator music felt like it was pulling out one of Mimiko's hairs. _Why do they even need elevator music? This is The Company Headquarters, not a freaking shopping mall. _Mimiko's hangover had started to mellow out, at breakfast she was even able to hold down a bagel that only felt like it was going to come back up once. She knew Kataro was secretly getting enjoyment out of her suffering. He had to have been purposely hitting his silverware on the plate during the entire breakfast, it made Mimiko want to curl up into a little ball.

Mimiko had decided during breakfast that Jiro was probably already at Headquarters and had disclosed the details of the previous night to Jinnai. She felt it was that not only her job as a Compromiser to tell Jinnai her side of the night, but she was also interested in knowing what Jiro had told Jinnai about the Black Bloods. They were obviously related to these Red Blood kidnappings. She hoped Jiro and Zelman had killed all of them, ruthlessly. _Well, maybe not ruthlessly, she was just still a bit angry with them for the previous night. Who could blame her…_The elevator beeped as it passed each of the floors leading up to the top; normally Mimiko would take the stairs to help her stay fit. She figured today, however, she had an excuse not to. The elevator chimed as it finally reached the top floor and opened up. Mimiko and Kataro walked out into the red carpeted hall way. The white walls, scone light fixtures, and crown molding gave it a royal feeling. There was a long hallway that went the length of the building that they were walking down. Approximately halfway down the hallway was Jinnai's office on the right; opposite of his office was a large corridor that went to the other side of the building that had other offices and meeting rooms off of it.

"I'm going to look for big brother"

Kataro bolted ahead of Mimiko, zigg zagging around the hallway, as he took a hard left down the large corridor. Mimiko didn't say anything, she just continued walking up to Jinnai's office door. The large wooden doors were almost intimidating, but then, that was probably the point of them. She was about to knock on the door when she noted that it was slightly ajar. She could hear Zelman's voice inside. Hearing his voice gave her chills that seemed to touch every vertebra in her back. She didn't know if she wanted to see Zelman right now, after there encounter last night.

As Mimiko stood outside the door she had a flashback to the previous night. She remembered Zelman standing in front of her, surrounded by flames. She also remembered how Zelman's hot skin felt as he held her against him. Mimiko blushed a deep red as she thought of how close she was to Zelman she had been last night, how should could feel his breath on her neck. _'Alright, I'll let you go this time Mimiko, but you need this, it will set you free and I promise you'll enjoy it_.' A shiver went down Mimiko's spine as she heard Zelman's words in her head. The worst part, she though, was that she still liked the sound of his voice.

Mimiko almost started to leave when she heard Zelman start talking again.

"So, how did Mimiko's parents die?"

Mimiko froze where she stood, unable to move even if she had wanted to. _Why is he asking about my parents? Why is he asking Jinnai about it? He wouldn't know. _She heard Jinnai get upset and tell Zelman that their meeting was over, she didn't hear Zelman move at all.

"You knew them, didn't you? Mimiko doesn't know that you knew her parents, does she?"

_Jinnai didn't know my parents, did he? If he did, why wouldn't he tell me? He's my boss, The Company took me in, and why would they hide something about my parents from me? Zelman has to be bluffing._

There was along pause before Mimiko heard anything, there was some shuffling but nothing evident enough to let Mimiko know what was going on. She desperately wanted to burst into the room. She felt tears start welling up in her eyes as she waited for an answer. It seemed like a century before Mimiko heard Zelman speak again.

"Mimiko doesn't know that you're her uncle, does she?"

_Uncle? Jinnai can't be my Uncle. I don't remember having an Uncle. __**We don't have any memories of Mom and Dad, how would we know if we had an uncle or not?**__ No way, no way they would lie to me and tell me I'm an orphan when I had family in The Company_. The time seemed to pass so slowly, she couldn't hear anything. There was no answer from Jinnai, which made it feel like the answer was yes to his questions. _If it wasn't true, wouldn't Jinnai be denying it?_ She could feel her face turn red and the tears started to run down her face like a waterfall, her heart felt like it was beating in her ears. She wanted an answer; she wanted Jinnai to tell her that Zelman was just lying. That what she already knew was the truth. Finally, the wait was too much to bear; Mimiko's legs unfroze as she burst into the room in frenzy.

"Is it true!"

There was no immediate answer from either Zelman or Jinnai. Zelman returned sitting while Jinnai started moving towards were Mimiko was standing. He looked partially stunned and partially upset.

"Mimiko….."

Mimiko's hands locked into angry fists at her sides. His lack of an answer was enough to tell her the truth; however, she wanted to hear it from him.

"Tell me the truth….now!"

Jinnai sighed as he empathetically looked at his niece. He didn't want her to have found out this way. He knew he would eventually have to tell her, but this wasn't the way she was supposed to find out. He had wanted to protect her for just a little bit longer.

"It's true…I'm so sorry I didn't tell you earlier Mimi, this isn't how…"

Before Jinnai could finish his sentence Mimiko turned and bolted away from them. Her hands were wiping the tears from her eyes as she sprinted towards the stairs. _How can this be true? How didn't I know this? I've been with The Company for as long as I can remember, why would no one tell me? How many people know in the company? Is it a secret to everyone? How did Zelman figure it out so quickly? Why would he keep something so important a secret? _As Mimiko was sprinting towards the stairs trying to get away from everyone she briefly saw a blur that was Jiro, Cain and Sei. As she pushed the door open in front of her to the stairwell she felt like she couldn't stop herself from crying. She just wanted to get away from everyone so that she could think this through. She felt betrayed, her whole life she thought she was a complete orphan that didn't have any family. She didn't think anyone had any memories of her parents and the only memories she had was a blurry photograph. _Why did he keep it a secret for so long?_

* * *

When Jiro, Cain, and Sei heard Mimiko yelling at Jinnai the three immediately moved into the corridor to see what was going on. Now they watched as the stairwell door slammed closed behind Mimiko. Jiro moved to go after her; he desperately wanted to comfort her. There was only one other time that Jiro had seen Mimiko cry, and similar to that time an instinct within Jiro did not want Mimi to suffer. When he went to move, however, he found that Cain's large arm was in front of him, preventing him from moving after her.

"I don't think you are the one that she needs comforting from right now"

Jiro looked at Cain to question his motive, but Cain wasn't looking back at him. He was staring down the hall to Jinnai, who was standing watching where Mimiko had gone out the stairwell door. A security guard started talking to Jinnai; anguish was the only word that could describe how he looked.

"Sir, would you like me to follow her?"

"No, I have a pretty good idea where she is going"

Jinnai finally started to move towards the elevator, prior to getting into it he glanced back at the three Black Bloods.

"I suppose there is no hope for keeping this a secret now….."

* * *

Mimiko ran and ran until she felt like she couldn't run any longer. Her sandals pulled relentlessly at her feet as she ran down the streets. Eventually the burning, and blistering engulfed her feet as they forced her to slow to a walk. Mimiko felt as though she had just been running for a short period, however, her feet, legs, and muscles told her otherwise. The sun was scorching on her back, sweat dripped down her back and arms. Her walk became more of a stumble as she continued walking through the streets, not caring that everyone she passed was staring at her. A few more blocks passed and she began to run her hand along the buildings in order to stay vertical. Finally, she came to an all too familiar intersection. Across the road from where she stood was a park, maybe the size of several city block, that some of her first memories were formed at. Crossing the street while the signal beeped Mimiko could see several people walking, picnicking, and playing Frisbee in the open area. This is where she had planned on coming to lay out in the sun today. The park had a large shaded area where old trees cast large shadows; the other half was an open area with only a few trees speckling the ground with relief from the hot sun. A curvy sidewalk wiggled through the park that was usually filled with joggers in the early morning. Within the shaded area of the park were some swings and jungle gym sets for children to play on.

Mimiko found her way to a swing set, there were only a couple children in the park and none of them were near the swings. Mimiko sat on one of them, swaying slightly and wrapping her arms around the chains to hold her up. Sitting on the swing, nonchalantly swinging her legs had a miraculously calming affect on her. Mimiko remembered when she had been a child someone from the company would bring her here to play. She was so small then that her legs didn't even come close to touching the ground. Mimiko dragged her feet bringing herself to a stop at the base of the swing; she stared out into nowhere land for a brief moment before burying her face in hands as she tried to pull herself together.

_Why would he lie to me?_

Mimiko felt an internal shrug as her inner self that could usually always form an answer. It had no answer for her today. The sound of the adjacent swing's chains creaking from tension broke Mimiko from her internal search for answers. She looked to her left, at the once empty swing. Jinnai was sitting in the swing, at first he wasn't looking at her; he was looking beyond her, at a family playing off in the distance with two children. His sympathetic glance turned to Mimiko.

"I'm so sorry Mimi, you weren't suppose to find out like that."

Mimiko wanted to run again, she wanted to run away and avoid this conversation. However, she didn't know where else to run, she didn't have any energy left to run. But most of all, deep down inside, she wanted answers. Her voice was broken from having cried for so much time.

"How did you know where I would go?"

"You always come here when you want to think something over…your mother would have liked it here."

At the mention of her mother Mimiko felt goosebumps move down her arms

"What was she like?"

"Your mother...she was very much like you: Kind, caring, loving, gentle…..although I think you got your tenacity and flare from your father."

"You mean _your _brother?"

"Yeah, he was my brother; he was also my best friend"

Mimiko felt slightly guilty of the insinuating tone she just shot at him, she felt guilty because although she still felt betrayed that she had been left out on the details concerning her mother and father, Jinnai also had a longing look. A look that Mimiko knew meant that he missed her parents almost as much as she did. Mimiko couldn't help it as more tears that ran down her cheeks.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Jinnai wasn't exactly sure how he was going to answer Mimiko's inquiries. He didn't expect her to find out so soon and had wanted time to think over how he was going to answer everything. He knew Mimiko was strong enough to hear and handle the truth; he just wasn't sure how much of the truth to feed her.

"I…..I was trying to follow your mothers last request"

"Her last request" it wasn't intended to be a question, but after Mimiko repeated his words, Jinnai continued as if she had.

"The last thing your mother told me was to protect you, at whatever cost"

"How did they die? When did they die?"

"It isn't pretty Mimiko, but I don't want to keep this a secret from you any longer. I just need to make sure you are really ready"

"I can handle this; I _need _to know the truth"

"Alright, it was just before the Kowloon Shock. Prior to the escalation of the full outbreak of Kowloon Children within Hong Kong there were small, calculated attacks on administrators within The Company. Your father and I worked along side one another, with full support from you mother. When the assassination attempts began we were told to evacuate Hong Kong; they wanted us to stay low for a couple of years until everything cooled off. We all stubbornly stayed; however, your mother and father sent you away with close friends that had no relation to The Special Zone. Several weeks later several Kowloon children snuck into headquarters, your parents were the targets."

"So, Kowloon Children killed my parents?"

"Yes"

In the mists of hearing how her parents actually died, Mimiko managed to break a small, strenuous smile of hope.

"My whole life I've been, unknowingly, fighting for what they believed in all along."

"They believed as much as anyone that Black Bloods and Red Bloods could live in harmony with each other. When I knew it was safe here I brought you into The Company as one of the orphans who lost their family in the Kowloon Shock. I kept it a secret that we were related so that if there was any more trouble with the Kowloon, they wouldn't know you were your parent's child. I only wanted to keep you safe Mimiko. If anything ever happened to you, I would never forgive myself."

There was a long silence while Mimiko was taking everything in, the smile was gone from her face but she didn't look nearly as upset as she had earlier. Mimiko could tell Jinnai was telling the truth now, and although she wished she had found all of this out sooner, a small part of her knew that eventually she would be able to forgive Jinnai for lying to her all of this time. But until then, she still felt hostile towards him.

Jinnai stood up from the swing, swiping at the front of his pants to free them from being wrinkled up from the swing. He offered his hand to Mimiko.

"Come on Mimi; let me take you home, you should take a couple of days off while you think things over."

Mimiko's response was cold and unemotional, as if all of her emotions had been drained by the day.

"No, tell me something, something I don't remember"

Only a brief moment passed before Jinnai had a story picked out to tell her.

"Well, there is a picture on my desk. The picture that Zelman grabbed and was able to figure out we were related. It was taken about 13 years ago during a very hot summer. One week all of the air conditioning in our headquarters broke, so your mother came into headquarters one day and demanded that we take a vacation. We all took an unplanned week long vacation to the beach. You took that picture on our first day there, your mother didn't want to give you the camera because you were only about 7 and was afraid you were going to drop it. You managed to take the photo without dropping the camera"

Mimiko searched her memory trying to find even a glimpse of that week; however, she didn't think she retained any memories of it.

"Why can't I remember them? I don't have any memories of them, I was 7, and I should have memories of it"

"I'm not surprised that you don't have any memories of them. When I told you about your parents' death it was extremely challenging for you to over come it. You wouldn't talk for months; psychiatrists said you had mentally reverted back to a younger age, to protect yourself. You would always come here when ever you wanted to get away from everything, that's how I knew to find you here."

There was another long silence as Mimiko stared off into the distance, hoping she could pull at least one memory of her parents from her mind. The attempt was futile; she couldn't pull any memories at the moment.

"Come on, I'll take you home"

Mimiko shook her head "I want to stay here for a while; I need to think things over"

Jinnai paused, momentarily arguing with himself whether he should push her to go home to get some rest, or if he should leave her in peace. Finally, starting to walk away from Mimiko he briefly turned back towards her.

"I _am_ sorry you found out this way Mimiko, please tell me if you need anything"

"I will"


	9. Chapter 9

Alright! Readers: I am so sorry it's been so long since I've updated. However, as you will probably agree: writing my thesis takes precedent over writing this fanfic. I'm not done with my thesis; I just needed a break so I wrote this awesome chapter this week. So don't expect another chapter soon after this one!

Hope you enjoy! I certainly enjoyed writing it.

Cheers!

Jibby

* * *

Mimiko didn't watch as Jinnai stood from the swing and walked out of the park. Not only did she not feel like she had the energy to lift her head, but she was still overwhelmed with emotions that she was trying to grapple with. Remaining entwined in the swing Mimi stirred through her emotions; she felt like she had been cheated by The Company and Jinnai. He had lied to her throughout her entire life, cheated her out of knowing that her parents had once been apart of The Company in Hong Kong. He had made her feel like she was alone her entire life, like there was no one there that truly understood what she had endured. She thought that the memory of her parents had been forgotten, that the only memory she had was a blurry picture of them that had been destroyed when her previous apartment had been bombed. Even though Mimi's mother had told Jinnai to protect her, she wasn't sure that 'protecting' her was the same as lying to her.

Underneath her sadness there was a feeling of righteousness rising. She knew her dedication to the balance of The Special Zone was important, but had never known that her parents also believed in it. She, and they, believed that most Black Bloods, like most Red Bloods, were just looking for a place to belong in the world, a place they could feel safe. She had dedicated her life to The Company and by learning about her parents' mutual dedication to black bloods reaffirmed her beliefs in the good The Special Zone brought for everyone. Mimiko's thoughts moved to her parents' death, the knife piercing pain in her gut almost made her spilled off the swing onto the ground.

New emotions of grief and pain surfaced as she was forced to remember images that only remained in her nightmares. The Kowloon Children haunted almost every member of The Company's dreams; even newbie's were told the horrible stories from Hong Kong, and now the stories from within this Special Zone. Mimiko's nightmares were a little more detailed however, a flashback of being pinned against a wall by Cassa filled Mimiko's mind and the pain she felt from Jiro during Blood Resonances was too much for her to handle at this moment. Mimiko slid out of the swing onto the dirt beneath, her arms wrapped around her wrenched gut. The shock from hitting the hard dirt forced Mimiko back to the current reality. Her head snapped up as she glanced around at the late afternoon sky. Knees tender from where she hit the hard rough ground. She must have been sitting on the swing for hours longer than she he had thought after Jinnai left. The sun was just starting to set below the high rises within the city, leaving long shadows covering some of the park.

* * *

Jinnai slouched into his desk chair, resting his head back and staring up at the feathered ceiling, exhausted from walking back from the park he exhaled loudly and allowed his eyes to slink closed. _How did Zelman figure it out so quickly? Gah, He ruined everything, he should have known Mimiko was standing in the doorway listening. I didn't, but, he's an Old Blood, he should have smelt her. He probably did know and was simply continuing the conversation just for his own twisted sense of humor. His audacity as of today has been growing painfully on my nerves, first with letting one of the black bloods get away without tracking or tagging it and now this. _

Jinnai started to try to calm himself by taking 10 slow, deep breaths; however, by 4 he stopped and opened his eyes. He may not have been a black blood, but he could feel at least one set of eyes watching him. When his eyes began to wonder the room they fell upon not one, but three, sets of eyes. Jiro was seated were Zelman had once been, Cain was standing to his right while Sei stood off to the side of both of them looking beyond Jinnai and out the windows onto the city. Jiro had his legs crossed and head bowed, his hat covering his eyes and most of his face. His mouth was still visible however and Jinnai could tell just from that that Jiro was not very pleased. His voice was cold.

"How long were you planning on lying to us about Mimiko?"

Jinnai licked his lips with nervousness, crossing his arms on this desk and clearing his throat before answering.

"I wasn't lying to you; I simply wasn't telling you the whole truth"

Jiro's glare shot up towards Jinnai.

"We fought along side each other in Hong Kong, were you ever going to tell me that the girl you asked me to protect was your family, more importantly, where you ever going to tell her?"

"OF COURSE I WAS GOING TO TELL HER! You think I enjoyed lying to her every time I saw her?" Jinnai picked up the photo of Mimiko's mother and father on his desk  
"I was going to tell her eventually, I was just waiting for the right time and way"

Cain huffed slightly "Well it seems Zelman thought today was the right time, every black blood in the building could have smelled her outside your office…"

"Jiro, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I didn't want her to hear it from anyone else except for me…..no one else knows….although now I'm sure it will be impossible to keep a secret"

Sei didn't move as he spoke, continuing to face the window as if he was looking out onto the city.

"Are there any other secrets regarding Mimiko that you would like to reveal? What is it that her mother wanted you to protect her from?"

All three black bloods now looked to Jinnai, as they had all been pondering the same question. Clearly her mother wasn't asking him to protect her against black bloods or he would not have put her in Jiro's protection.

"Kowloon Children killed her parents in Hong Kong."

Jiro's teeth clenched and his muscles tensed as his thoughts immediately went to Casa, that crazy bitch. Jiro couldn't help thinking about Casa and Alice whenever the topic of Kowloon ever came up. Jiro swore that one day he would kill her, one day he would take revenge on the one who killed his Alice. Alice had put her trust in Jiro to protect her, and he failed. He failed to protect the woman he loved, the woman that was his. It made Jiro even angrier about that it was someone Alice trusted that ended up betraying and killing her. It haunted Jiro every time he thought about it, that he wasn't able to protect her. Now Jinnai was putting his trust in him to protect Mimiko. It had been along time since the Kowloon shock in Hong Kong, it had been a long time since he had been protecting anyone besides Kataro. He refused to fail this time. He refused to fail to protect Mimiko from whatever threats there may be.

Jiro suddenly stood up after a long silence had fell on the room.

"I don't care if it's Kowloon, black bloods, red bloods, or whatever threatens Mimiko. I won't let you down Jinnai. I _swear_ to you that I won't let anything happen to her on my watch."

Jinnai was slightly set back by this; he had half expected Jiro to be angrier with him. He had asked Jiro to protect Mimiko without telling him they were related. He had even lied to the other black bloods as to the reason he had placed Mimiko with the job of escorting Jiro and Kataro into The Special Zone. Jiro had started to leave the room.

"Jiro, wait, I need to ask you to complete a job, since you are technically working for us."

Jiro stopped but did not turn to face Jinnai or the others.

"I need you track that black blood that got away earlier. I believe that there are many other red bloods being held captive. We don't want any casualties, so if there is more than a couple, call for backup."

Jiro nodded and walked out in the direction of the conference room they had previously occupied. Kataro was there, watching television as he waited for his brother to return.

"Kataro, lets go"

Kataro was immediately by Jiro's side walking down the long hallway towards the stairs. Kataro's wavy golden hair had now grown down to his shoulders. He was no longer the young child that he had once been when they first came to The Special Zone, but was a young teenager. Kataro hadn't physically changed much, he had grown slightly taller and his face looked more mature. The most change from Kataro was his mental maturity; he was beginning to understand in more depth the ways of black bloods. He also often asked about Jiro's past, who was reluctant to ever divulge any great details. Jiro never seemed to forget that it would only be a couple more years before Kataro began to question his existence and the time would come to awaken the Lord Sage.

"Are you going to go find Mimiko? I think you should"

Kataro paused at a landing looking back up at his brother after getting ahead of him by skipping steps down the stairs.

"I'm going to bring you home first"

Kataro continued down the next flight of stairs, hanging onto both railings as he skipped steps at a time.

"I can get home on my own; I think it would make Mimiko happy to see you"

"I'm sure she could use some alone time before seeing me, I'll drop you off then go find her" knowing his brother too well, Jiro continued

"This is not negotiable Kataro, not everyone in The Special Zone is as trustworthy as Lord Sei and Cain."

* * *

A dark face was hidden by the darkness that was strewn over the passageway that he passed through. He had dark brown hair and golden eyes that seemed to glow against the grey stonework surrounding him. As he passed through the narrow passageway he could knew he was getting closer to his destination, his pace quickened. Teeth grinding against each other as he clenched his jaw in anger, his fangs were almost puncturing his lower lip. Finally the black blood came to an opening where the passageway widened it was, however, no brighter lite than where he just emerged from. He paused momentarily to ensure nothing was out of place, but before he could continue on to his destination a voice broke through the darkness. The voice seemed carefree and charming:

"What happened?"

"We were ambushed by two old bloods, that dam Goro, he led them straight to us!"

His voice was much huskier then that of his leaders

"Goro, huh? Hmmm, good"

A black haired man stepped out into a dimly lit area of the chamber, his hair was pulled back into a ponytail on the back of his neck. Pins held the loose pieces away from his clean, almost ghostly looking face. He was wearing a black Kimono, and his green eyes matched the ito of his Katana that was fastened to his side. He wasn't looking at the man standing before him but instead glancing to the barred off cells to his right. Inside were more than a dozen people sitting silently hunched over and handcuffed to the floor.

"Masato-san, what do you mean? Was following your orders? They took the three red bloods we had held captive there!"

Masato tisked in disappointment over his subordinate.

"We have bigger plans than these red bloods, Riku. Having them discover our blood bank operation was all part of the plan…it's like a magic trick"

Masato turned and began walking the other way out of the chamber, pausing just before entering the narrow stairwell.

"Take over watch; I have some business to take care of."

Riku waited to hear Masato to climb all of the stairs before he slowly walked along the barred cells. He ran his hand along the bars as he passed; seeing every red blood flinch with each thud was invigorating to him. He loved the power being Black Blood gave him. When he was changed it was as if he had been given the power of a god. He felt like a god over the Red Bloods, they couldn't even comprehend his power. After passing two of the cells filled with red bloods he paused in front of the third and glared down upon the two, young female red bloods that were cowering next to each other within.

"You two look delicious…"

* * *

Zelman walked along the shaded city sidewalk, his hands shoved in his pockets and a cigarette in his mouth leaving a small smoke trail behind him. He didn't need to concentrate to be able to follow Mimiko's scent. She had been sweating and wearing enough perfume that he could have tracked her from a mile away. He had been following her trail for a couple of hours now; the scent began to become stronger as he approached her location.

Zelman hadn't initially decided to go after Mimiko; he was planning on heading back to his mansion and fetching _something_ fresh to drink. It wasn't until the second time he crossed Mimiko's trail within the city that he changed his mind and decided on following her. On his walk he thought about what Jinnai had said, he heard him talking to Jiro and the others on his way out. Mimiko's parents had been killed by the Kowloon. Why? Why were they killed and Jinnai wasn't? Was it simply bad timing? When dealing with Kowloon he knew it was rarely ever a matter of bad timing and almost always something malicious planned. Zelman couldn't stop thinking that there was something bigger that he didn't know about. He felt as though it had been too easy to track the black blood earlier. There was something big being planned within The Special Zone and he wasn't part of it. He previously would have been informed of malevolently thought up plans within The Special Zone, however, ever since the incident with Casa and Yafuri, word rarely reached him. He couldn't help the feeling that he wanted to be at the center of whatever it was happening. It had been so exciting the last time; he didn't want to miss a similar opportunity for him to show off his power.

Jinnai wasn't telling the whole story, this Zelman was sure of. However, he decided that if he wanted to be at the center of the action, it would be safe to assume that being near Mimiko would bring him closer to it. Even if Mimiko wasn't an important part of whatever plan was going on, she did always seem to get in the center of all of the trouble. Not to mention she was always sent out on the most dangerous missions since she had her own personal black blood guard. If Zelman wanted to be near the action so he could figure out what was going on in The Special Zone, he was going to need a plan of his own.

Zelman emerged out onto an open block where he was looking out into a small city park that was partially fenced in. The far side of the park had large trees close together and the entire thing was speckled with humans relaxing or enjoying themselves. A couple of runners leaving the park as Zelman entered passed by caring a strong scent of Mimiko with them. Zelman paused by the entrance to the park to inspect the area of any dangers, including the fading sun light. Although there were hours of daylight left, one of the fantastic things about being in a big city, in Zelman's mind, was that there was hardly any sun light left shining in the early evening hours. He was also scanning the park looking for Mimiko, in hopes that he would spot her before she ever saw him. He quickly spotted her on the other side of the park, just into the dense area of trees. He quickly moved to go around the back side of the park. He didn't want to just walk up on Mimiko, although she looked so out of it he probably could have walked right past her without her noticing.

Mimi had moved from her collapsed position beneath the swing to leaning up against a tree nearby. Her face was no longer red from crying, although the tear stains were still very visible. Instead now her face was like stone, the color had left her face a blanch white and he stared out into the field of the park without moving. She wasn't sure how long it had been since she had moved, but she didn't care. Too much was happening in her head for her to care about what her body was doing. A cool breeze blew by her and she suddenly realized that she was a little bit cold; she bent her knees up pulling them against her chest to keep her warm. While in motion she caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of her eye. Looking quickly she realized that Zelman was sitting on the swing that she had once been on.

In another situation having Zelman suddenly appear out of nowhere so close to her might have made her jump out of her skin. However, this time her reaction was quite nonchalant in making the realization. Zelman was sitting on the swing, not looking at Mimi but out into the park at a family playing ball. His arms wrapped upwards in the chain as his feet dangled just slightly above the ground. The swing didn't move, as if it had not been affected by him sitting on it.

"You knew I was standing outside the door, didn't you?"

"Of course"

Mimi continued staring at him with a blank gaze, emotionless, or rather, emotionally drained.

"Why did you continue?"

Zelman shrugged, he didn't say anything. He almost felt like saying he wanted her to know, but maybe that was too out of character for him and she would catch on to him playing some sort of plan. He just kept staring and let Mimi continue the conversation.

"I'm not sure how I feel anymore"

Zelman put it as bluntly as ever

"You'll get over it soon enough….you'll forgive Jinnai, since he is your only living family, you'll thank me, and you'll continue what you've always been doing"

Mimiko smiled slightly

"You sound so sure of yourself"

"I've been around long enough to know that this isn't bad enough to change you"

"I meant that you think I will thank you"

"You weren't planning on thanking me?"

Zelman displayed a sinister crooked smirk as he quickly glanced in Mimiko's direction and then back to the field.

"No, I wasn't. That isn't how Jinnai was planning on telling me"

"You are so sure that he was planning on telling you?"

"Yeah, you said so yourself, we are family after all."

"You aren't angry with me, are you Mimiko?"

Zelman said with a hint of sarcasm

Mimiko shook her head

"No, I'm not angry Zelman, I've just got a lot to wrap my head around, and I've been thinking a lot"

"You better have gotten a lot of thinking done; you've been sitting in this dam park all day"

Mimiko smiled again, a slight laugh left her throat although it was almost silent

"What? You don't like parks Zelman?"

Zelman's gaze never left the family playing out in the field; he followed the ball as it moved from person to person

"Humans always think parks are relaxing and fun. The only thing fun I see about it is the number of humans that don't have their guard up like they would in the city."

Mimiko shivered thinking briefly of how Zelman viewed all of the people running around out the field.

"Alright, I'm ready to go home now, will you walk with me?"

"I suppose"

* * *

Jiro stood downwind of the park, hidden in the shadows of an alley he silently watched Mimiko and Zelman talk. He had only been there for a couple of moments when he saw Mimiko smiling, maybe even laughing. Jiro was upset that he couldn't hear what Zelman had said to make her laugh. Jiro hadn't gotten a smile out of Mimiko in months. Their relationship had become more and more strained as of late and he just kept wondering what he was doing wrong. He watched as Zelman helped Mimiko to her feet, Jiro had to stop himself from rushing in when she saw Zelman's hands touch Mimiko's bear arms. If he had only gotten there 10 minutes earlier he would have been there instead of Zelman. He felt an emotion rise in him that he quickly subdued, he had told her he wouldn't be upset upon smelling another vampire on her. After the other night Mimiko had made it perfectly clear that she could see whoever she wanted to.

The smell of Zelman on her however, was something that he knew he could never get used to.

* * *

Please R&R :D


	10. Chapter 10

SOOOOOooo it's been awhile. I first want to apologize for the great length of time. I hope no one gave up on this story! I got a real-person job and have been working more than 40 hours a week. But my cousin finally got me back in the spirit of writing. To make up for the length of time this chapter is very very long. I hope you enjoy! BTW I LOVE ALLLLLLL OF THE REVIEWERS! You make me smile and get me in gear to write! Yay!

* * *

The evening sun was falling low behind the skyscrapers of the Special Zone, long shadows were growing between them and the only sunlight left was the long dim glimmers that stretched down the streets between buildings. On the tenth floor of an unoccupied building Masato slowly walked between an aisle of cubicles. As he slowly walked from the stairs to the windows he meandered through the cubicles glancing carelessly at each one as he passed. Running his hand along the rough outer material of a cubicle, that works like a sound buffer, he silently laughed at the oddity of human behavior. It had been so long since he was human; he found it difficult to understand their willingness to prison themselves in these squares for hours a day. Each cubicle had pictures, drawings, and notes posted up on the boards, as if to remind them each of a life they had outside of this prison. He grabbed a photo as he was passing by the last cubicle on the aisle, pausing momentarily to look at it. A family, mother, father and two little children; they were all smiling as if they had no fears. All of these humans were so naïve, they believed that they were the dominate species on earth, that creatures that go bump in the night were just of nightmares. He crumpled the photo and tossed it back into the cubicle from which it came.

Masato approached the large windows that encircled the building, large windows to give the employees the impression that they weren't willingly imprisoning themselves. Masato bushed his long dark hair away from his face that had escaped his ponytail and pins. He gently pushed a pin back into place to hold it. He ran his hands along the side of his face ensure it was clear of any other loose strands. He smirked as he caught a glimpse of what he came here to see. Looking down on an open park, with congested city streets surrounding it, He had spotted Zelman and a human as they were heading out of the park. Zelman was wearing his usual hat to cover his fire red hair; they talked as they were exiting the park and heading up the city block.

"Oh fire god, how far you have fallen to allow yourself to talk to a mere human like she isn't just something to feed on….what happened to the good old days….friend?"

* * *

They had been walking for several blocks, Mimiko was blabbing about anything on her mind. Going from some of the recent cases Jiro and her had been on to her night out with Hibari. Zelman was listening carefully to her as they walked, listening for anything that might be intriguing to him. He had no interest in her night out with Hibari; the 'nights out' of humans were quite dull compared to a night out with The Coven. The coven, or at least what was left of it after its demise due to an infestation of the Kowloon, was known for creating havoc whenever they wanted to have a little fun. August had been known to have some of the most interesting of parties, when you put vampires and willing humans together in parties, things tend to get a little out of hand. More than once he had been scolded by the Lord Sei and The Company about the risks of letting humans willing to be bit know that such things as black bloods and the like do exist. It hadn't caused a problem for hundreds of years, and he doubt it would cause a problem now.

While Zelman was thinking of what he normally did, blood, the past, how to ensure that the terrible things he endured never happened again….Mimiko was thinking of quite different things.

Mimiko was currently trying to describe the situation that had arisen the previous night that ended with Zelman having to save her. "Well you see: Hibari had met this guy, and so instead of going home with them, since his buddy was a complete ass-wipe, he said he knew he was going to sleep with me, what a jerk. Anyways I decided to walk home myself"

Her explanation wasn't quite going as she had planned; instead of looking like the responsible one she ended up making herself look like a prude.

She took a deep breath, it had been so easy to talk to Zelman last night, but now that she knew he wasn't actually as scary as he always made himself seem, (and was sober) she only found herself tripping over her own words. She could feel herself blush whenever he looked at her. It was like some of the first times she had been talking to Jiro, it wasn't fair. Why were all old bloods so dam attractive. It wasn't like she was attracted to him; her body just couldn't help but blush when they were close. Well, alright, she was quite attracted to him, but it still wasn't fair. Mimiko desperately wanted…..needed to keep talking. She didn't want her mind to drift back to the events of today, to the thoughts she had been pondering over. Her eyes had now had about a half an hour of rest and she was afraid that if her thoughts returned to her parents new tears would form in the place of the old ones. She quickly changed her minds subject:

"Sooooo…..How is the coven doing?"

Zelman quickly glanced at Mimi, raising an eyebrow as he was slightly confused by her question "Do you really actually care about how the coven is doing?"

Mimi knew her question was lame, she was just desperately trying to keep someone talking; she had remembered that the previous night she had started to prod at Zelman.

"Well…kind of…I really just thought that maybe you would like to do some of the talking instead of me babbling on and on about stuff that you probably also don't care about"

"Well, at least you don't think that I care about your night out with Hibari in which a human was desperately testing all of his moves to get you home"

"So you were actually listening, I'm impressed"

A moment of silence passed before Zelman started, humoring Mimi:

"The coven is spread a little thin these days, ever since the damn August and the Kowloon infested it…"

Zelman stopped suddenly in his tracks, he looked as though he was abruptly pondering something else entirely. A crooked grin cracked from his lips, careful not to let one of his fangs show, lest a passing red-blood see. Mimi couldn't stop her face from blushing when she noted him grinning, she hoped he hadn't noticed; but honestly, it wasn't her fault. It was those damn old bloods and their attractiveness!

"Well Mimiko, it seems like this is where we depart ways, I'll be seeing you"

And with that, Zelman was gone. Mimiko quickly lost sight of him, he had crossed the street and on the other side it was as if he disappeared. Mimi was still in quite a daze, she wasn't quite sure what had happened, and she wasn't quite thrilled about him just _leaving_ her there like that. Shaking her head she turned back to the direction of home and was confronted with the reason Zelman was so quick to disappear.

"Jiro…you're here…."

"of course….I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier Mimiko"

Mimiko shrugged, she motioned in the direction that Zelman had disappeared in.

"It's okay, Zelman was…"

Mimiko drifted off as she knew that Jiro had obviously been watching them and knew what she was going to say anyways. An evening breeze blew by them, it was cool and crisp, which gave Mimiko a chill, and she wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to keep warm.

"You must be freezing, here"

Without a hesitation Jiro removed his jacket and put it around her shoulders, she grabbed the collar instinctively pulling it around her. They briefly smiled at each other as there was an awkward silent moment where neither knew if they should start talking or walking. Jiro made a move around her side, putting his arm around her shoulders in comfort.

"Come on, let's get you home"

As they started walking it was quite for some time until Mimi finally remembered her interest in knowing:

"What ended up happening last night with those black bloods?"

As they walked home in the dimming light Jiro explained to her the details of the previous night. Part way home the sun had fully set and the street lamps came on. Jiro thought she would be slightly skittish in the dark; however, it was as if the attack on her the other night had not affected her at all. He supposed that's what she had been trained for. They had been through some tough stuff together and one night of vampires attacking and threatening her didn't seem like that big of a deal when he looked at the whole picture. Of everything that had happened to her over the years of being a compromiser. Mimiko was a strong person, and an extremely strong woman, Jiro was always reminded of this by her actions.

It was almost a half of an hour before Mimi and Jiro entered the loft. Kataro only had one light on within the apartment; however, both of them were easily able to meander up the stairs and into the living area. Mimi heard Jiro settle onto a chair in the living area while she continued to her bedroom, gently closing the door behind her. Without really thinking about her actions Mimi made her way to her dresser, took out a night gown and changed for the evening. After changing into plush, snow flake designed pajamas she flicked her light off and climbed into her bed. Her bed seemed softer and more welcoming than ever before, she knew it wasn't new sheets or a comforter that caused this, that it was only the events of the past day that made a nights rest feel so welcoming. As she slumped down below her covers and relaxed her head on the bed she stared up at the celling. She quickly tried to close her eyes in order to fall asleep before her mind started carrying away on its own thoughts. As soon as her head hit the pillow Mimi was asleep; it wasn't, however, a good sleep.

Her nightmares from the past seemed to slip back into her sleep. She woke up gasping for breath as she felt as though the flames consuming her dreams had also consumed any moisture within her throat. Sitting up in the pitch blackness Mimi slowly grasped what was real and what had been a dream. Her sweaty palms and face felt cool against the evening air. She couldn't see him, but she knew Jiro was nearby. Mimiko didn't know if it was her senses becoming honed in on the darkness over the years, or if it was because of long term Blood Resonance, but she always could tell when Jiro was close by in the dark.

"Jiro?" her soft, hoarse voice barely piercing the darkness.

He moved slightly so that she could find him against the surrounding cloak. He had been sitting on the edge of her bed for some time now thinking about what to say to her. He still hasn't picked the right words…

"Mimi...I owe you an apology, for last night….and for some time now. Last night, I over reacted. The truth is…the truth is I promised Jinnai that I would protect you. He made me swear that I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I won't fail again Mimiko"

Mimi knew what he meant by 'again', he was referring to his feelings of failure from protecting Alice. She couldn't stop the images of Cassa resurface in her mind; some were flashbacks, some were from her nightmares. She reactively clenched her pillow with her still sweaty hand and slammed her eyelids closed as the images passed. A long moment passed before she could respond.

Jiro could tell Mimiko was stiffening in the darkness; the uneasiness emanating from her was like a wave of emotion. He knew she would be unsettled by bringing up the events of the other night. He had been rude and arrogant the previous night and she had a right to be angry at him. Her response was not as he had expected; especially after her tenseness.

"I don't want you to have to protect me, Jiro. I can take care of myself. I won't lie, I love having you and Kataro around. But I don't want you to have to be here, just because of an order an old friend gave you."

"At first, it was just a favor for a friend. But now, in all the years since Hong Kong, we've never been as close to someone as you. Cain, Sei, the princess…..none of them have been as good to us as you have been. I would be lying if I said I didn't whole heartedly want to be here, Mimi."

There was another long pause, as Mimiko was fighting with her words, not sure how to get out what she wanted and not hurt Jiro's feelings in the process, but it needed to be said and she felt that now was a as good as a time as any.

"I'll never be Alice, Jiro"

His voice now came from the other side of the room; she was caught off guard as she hadn't even felt or heard him move.

"I know that…I hope that with time you can forgive me for not being able to forget her, I've spent the last decade planning revenge on her death and given the opportunity to take it on Cassa….I….I was not skilled enough to kill her."

Mimiko was silent, she wanted to speak. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was for his loss, how she couldn't imagine the pain he went through. However, no words would leave her lips, she just blankly stared into the darkness where she though Jiro was. He continued:

"I have to leave, I'll be back tomorrow"

Mimiko slouched back down against her white sheets and comforting pillow, rolling onto her side. She didn't hear him leave, but she knew Jiro was far gone into the night by now. She stayed there for the remainder of the night slipping in and out of a mixture of dreams and nightmares.

* * *

Zelman slowly strolled into his mansion; the large iron front doors screeching shut behind him he slowly meandered through the walls as he had done for years. He took slightly longer than he usually did, looking at some of the photographs on the walls. Paintings of unknown wealthy humans lined the walls; the mansion had been abandoned for some time before The Coven moved in. Who knows, or cares, what happened to the previous residents. Walking down the long corridor to his chambers he passed Salem and a couple of the other remaining vampires within The Coven. The faint light coming through the tall windows glimmered against dust in the air, obscuring his view of the vampires.

"Zelman! We hadn't seen you all day"

Zelman smirked, but didn't find the need to reply, continuing on his way

"We are all heading out to grab a _bite_, maybe have some fun, rustle some feathers…..want to join?"

He continued walking waved a hand after passing them by

"Meh, I've been out all day….I'm already tired of it all"

"Alright, suite yourself!" The group continued chattering and horsing around as they left the mansion.

Zelman continued to his chambers, leaving the doors slightly ajar. The room was far from sparsely furnished. There were several claw footed couches and chairs, dark cherry wood tables, and dark red velvet curtains filled the room. They had left most of the mansion as it was when they adopted it. The furniture, drapes, and the like all were quite gothic and dark. It was quite ironic for a group of vampires to find a mansion decorated in such a classical manner to use as their home. One of the only additions to his room was the obscene number of candles, all different shapes and colors covered the room. Zelman relaxed on a deep red couch that faced the large marbled fireplace at the end of the room. Resting his feet on the table he leaned back staring at the unlit fireplace. It was only seconds before he snapped his fingers and a roaring fire took hold within. He made the fire dance as it caught onto the logs within. As he leaned back and closed his eyes he lit several other candles throughout the room. He couldn't help that he was the ultimate pyromaniac. Lighting a candle just to prove that he was able to extinguish it just as quickly. Lights flickered throughout the room as his mind wondered. Until a voice, which he was very aware of for several minutes, spoke out.

"Something must be bothering you Zelman-san, the last time you played with fire the Kowloon Children invaded The Special Zone"

Zelman didn't open his eyes, or look her way. His words were emotionless and mono-tone

"You know nothing of my ways Sayuka"

He could hear her teeth grinding together and her heart race as she spoke. He was growing increasingly tired of her privileged attitude.

"Zelman-san, I've heard rumors…..rumors about you and this compromiser _girl_, I DEMAND to know what is going on? Is this serious?"

Zelman didn't even think about his response to her, he just said what was on his mind without caring about her feelings. He had previously been mindful of her emotions to ensure she stayed around because she was fairly useful to him; however as of late, that was not the case.

"It's more serious than you…"

"UGHH, Zelman Clock, you are such an ASS!"

Zelman never opened his eyes but he listened as she stormed out of the mansion, slamming all of the doors as she went. He hoped her leaving would give him the seclusion he so desperately wanted. No one was around to bother him; it was just him and his thoughts.

* * *

The cool air from the night blew through Jiro's hair as he raced through the night. The crispness of it hitting his face as he ran was refreshing and exhilarating. He had left the loft only a couple of hours ago and he was already catching up to the black-blood that had escaped them the previous night. After some time of running Jiro slowed to a walk and after briefly looking around came to a halt. Suddenly frozen like stone he paused to observe his surroundings. He was in a part of the Special Zone he had only previously been to once or twice. It was an abandoned, rural part of the city. When Mimiko was with him the pervious time she had explained that this part of the city contained some of the original ancient stone buildings that were here long before the city was, they were never torn down or built over because there was always the prospect of turning them into a landmark or sightseeing location. What was left was a large overgrown area far from the skyscrapers that were brightly lighting up the night sky. It was just past the industrial and warehouse region and Jiro was still able to see the large parking areas and building behind a fence separating this region. Old stone foundations from what must have been massive, and expensive, buildings surrounded Jiro; the occasional tin shed could also be found throughout.

Jiro started making his way through the cold stone foundations as he narrowed down where the black-blood was hiding. He approached a large foundation near the outskirts that seemed to go at least a story below grade. Carefully checking to see if anyone was hiding within the crevasse, Jiro grasped the hilt of his sword, peering into the darkness.

Emptiness.

A slight gust of air blew out from one end of the foundation fissure that carried with it the scent of several red-bloods, more than Jiro could distinguish with one breath, at least 10, but most distinctively, the black-blood he had been tracking. Repositioning his blade Jiro prepared to descend into the darkness, with numerous more red-bloods this quite possibly the center location of the blood banking operation they had going on. He paused, remembering Jinnai's words to contact him if there were red-bloods so they could be properly handled. Quickly sending a text message to Jinnai explaining the situation Jiro jumped down into the fissure. He landed on cool and damp rocks; prepared for the impact, his landing was silent; however, he paused to make sure no commotion erupted because of him. Nothing seemed to have changed so he began walking through the narrow pathway through rock and dirt. The close quarters within the rocky walls made it impossible for Jiro to hold his katana in any way that could be helpful; he ended up having it in his trailing arm as he pushed through the narrows so he had a free hand forward lest anything happen. The earthy smell of the tunnel was overwhelmingly saturated with red-bloods, he could tell they were suffering and several were bleeding. He hoped Jinnai would send a large enough team to handle all of the red-bloods.

He was only here for the black-blood.

Thoughts of Mimiko entered his mind and he couldn't help but grow increasingly irritated at this black-blood for wanting to hurt her. Mimiko was like family to Jiro now, she cared for Kataro like he was her family and it meant more to Jiro than he could express. Just hours ago Jiro had expected Mimi to be angry at him for his reaction the other night, but she wasn't. Her not being angry with him made him feel even worse about the situation. He had become protective of her when she was just trying to live her life. _'I'll never be Alice, Jiro'_ she had said. _I never wanted her to be Alice_ he thought. No one could ever replace Alice to him; he had accepted that the moment he knew he had Kataro to care for. With Kataro now as the unawaken Lord Sage, Jiro was quite conflicted with numerous problems that often filled his head. When was the right time to make Kataro aware of himself? When was the right time to return to the dark princess of the north after awakening him, both being the oldest black-bloods of the chaotic bloodline they would have much to discuss? Jiro, in general, feared obstacles that he could not yet see with Kataro. He found them often clouding his judgment…like right now.

He had come much too close to the end of the tunnel and almost into an opening where he sensed the black-blood lingering. There was no way that the black-blood didn't sense his presence. Out from the tunnel was a larger opening and along his left side were several chained rot-iron doors where he could smell the red-bloods were being held. There were more than he had original thought. Possibly dozens. How did no one in the company realize this was going on earlier? How could this many humans be captured and no one knew about it. Wasn't the company in with the police, shouldn't someone have recognized this issue earlier? Jiro continued to stand mute as he assessed the situation in front of him. He could sense the other black blood but was unable to tell where he was, it would be unwise for him to jump out into a situation he wasn't fully aware of. Especially with humans around. His concentration was quickly broken.

"Come on out Jiro Mochizaki….I've been waiting for you silver blade!"

The black blood from earlier that night strolled out of the farthest doorway, brushing off his hands as he did. Jiro couldn't help but notice the red blood stain around his mouth; he had obviously just been drinking from one of the humans in that cell. He swiftly emerged into the open dungeon like corridor now that his cover had been shattered.

"You already know who I am, yet the only thing I know about you is that you threatened a dear friend of mine's life last night, which I do not tolerate"

"My name is Riku Kyurasse. I must say silver blade your reputation precedes you. All of the vampires in the eastern hemisphere gossip about you defeating the Kowloon King and protecting the Special Zone from hell raisers like myself. Although…..I've lived in the Special Zone now for an entire year, and this is the first time I've ever seen you."

Riku stood out in the middle of the corridor, his arms crossed as he was staring at Jiro, not making any moves. Jiro went to draw his sword; however that wasn't nearly room in the narrow passage for him to effectively use it. He sufficed to placing it against the well behind him and fighting with his fists, this Riku character didn't have a weapon on him anyways. He doubted it would be a very long fight.

Riku continued as he slowly stepped closer and began closing the distance between himself and Jiro.

"When I lived outside the Special Zone all I would hear is stories about how tough and fearless you were. However, now that I live here, the only rumors I ever hear is about you and that compromiser of yours…What was her name again? …..Mimiko?"

With brining Mimiko's name up Jiro pounced towards Riku, yelling as he did, preparing to bring Riku down in quick time. Riku dodged right at Jiro's attack, however, as he was expecting this Jiro grabbed Riku as he passed and threw him against the opposing wall. Pushing him against the wall Jiro quickly landed several hits to Riku's rib cage. As Riku moaned with pain at each hit he was able to pull a knee to his chest and swiftly kick Jiro away from him. Jiro slid several feet back from Riku, catching himself with a hand on the ground. Riku was strong from having just drank, but was still not as fast or as strong as the Silver Blade. After quick breaths of recovery it was now Riku's turn to pounce towards Jiro in attack mode. Riku boldly charged at Jiro, catching him in a football like tackle sending him against the rot-iron gates behind him. With his head down and having momentarily pinned Jiro, Riku beat Jiro's abdomen as many times as he could until he was spun around, now the both stood in the center of the corridor. Riku was smiling in a crazed manor; Jiro was emotionless as he tried not to let his mind wander to Mimiko or Kataro.

"You should really keep that human on a leash"

Jiro snarled "You bastard" as he again charged at Riku, this time it was a kick to the face and an upper cut to the stomach. Riku momentarily gasped but quickly recovered to attempt tripping Jiro to get him of balance. Jiro easily avoided being tripped but not the fist to the side of his jaw. Jiro was quickly becoming frustrated with this fight, he did not often enjoy hand to hand combat, although he was highly skilled from training with Crow, he preferred his blade. As he swung back from being punched in the face Jiro grabbed his sword and uncomfortably drew it in the close quarters. As he drew he dropped the sheath onto the ground and pointed at Riku, it was time for a quick kill now that he knew Riku was not skilled enough to challenge him. Riku advanced, Jiro quickly moving to the side of the corridor to cut Riku down. However, prior to reaching the blade Riku disintegrated into little more than a pile of dust and ash. Jiro was baffled for a moment before coming to his senses, no one else than Badrick was standing behind were Riku had just vanished from. Decked out in full body armor and yellow-safety glasses, he had his oversized gun resting atop his shoulder, finger still on the trigger. He spit onto the ground.

" .well, the all mighty silver blade can't even handle one little black blood. Pitiful"

Jiro gritted his teeth

"I had him. I called you here because of the red bloods….not the dam black blood…..he was mine"

Now being reminded of Riku with blood on his face Jiro quickly raced to check on the humans in the cell. A dark haired young girl was kneeling over a smaller blond haired girl that was laying on her back on the floor, unresponsive to the others sobs to wake up. When Jiro entered the cell she hovered over the other girl in a protective manner. Jiro couldn't tell if the look he received from the girl was appreciation or fear, she probably didn't know either.

"Your friend will be fine, she just needs to get to the hospital…she'll make it"

"Don't come any closer….I mean it!"

Jiro couldn't help but smile a little at how this girl reminded her of Mimi….given the situation she would have done the same.

"The police are here….they will make sure everyone's okay"

Jiro turned back towards were Badrick who was directing more of his men into the corridor. Heading out the way he came Jiro momentarily paused glimpsing back at the suppression team

"I'll assume you can handle yourselves from here?"

"Pft. You ass….we could have handled this without you. We knew they were in the area, we were just waiting for the best time to take them out"

"Oh yeah?" Jiro smirked as he started walking out "was that going to be before or after they killed the red-bloods"

Jiro laughed to himself as he heard Badrick curse and kick/punch the nearby wall whatever had happened at least the humans were safe now. The suppression team would bring them to a debriefing wing of the hospital, the 'police' would explain that the people were crazy and on some drug and were going to sell them on the black market….the black market was always used to scare people…it also always made a good story to keep the press off of The Company.

The suppression team could handle the red bloods themselves. Jiro had confidence in the team…over powering? Yes…a little…a lot head strong? Definitely. Trigger happy? Probably. But they got the job done and always backed Mimiko and Jiro up, ever since the most recent outbreak of Kowloon.

* * *

Zelman was sprawled on his back across the long couch, he had been hoping for some rest, but he suddenly brightly lit all of the candles in the room and sat up. He slowly took long breaths. _I could have sworn I just smelt Mimiko close by, Jiro would have brought her home. He would have been an idiot not to. I couldn't have smelt Mimi_. Zelman now stood and walked towards the door. _Maybe something happened…she has to be close by I just caught her scent again._ Zelman began walking down the corridor to investigate what was going on. Without Sayuka here he would have to take care of this on his own. Suddenly, he was frozen in his tracks, face plastered with confusion and doubt. He caught another scent lingering with Mimiko's that he almost didn't remember at first. But then again, when you spend 100 years as someone's friend….you tend to remember their scent forever.

"Masato….What have you done!?"

Please R&R-Hopefully a new chapter to come sooner rather than later…


	11. Chapter 11

Yes, I am back! YAY! Thank you to the reviewers who literally made my day! (I love reviews, I mean, who doesn't?) :D Sorry about the no punctuations after quotes. I actually never even noticed that I had been doing that but now looking back I have been leaving them open ended like 80% of the time. IDK what got into me hahaha, I tried harder on this one not to. I know my writing is not phenomenal by any means, and I never try to claim it to be. I hope you can forgive me! And I didn't leave this chapter off as awful as the last one, which even hurt me. So don't be mad.

This one is a little shorter, but I think it's better for chapters to be a little shorter and more frequent! ENJOY! Love you all.

* * *

Mimiko awoke suddenly, lying on her side, facing the night sky through her window; she could feel her tear soaked face against the warm sheets. Pitiful. She was so tired and yet all her mind could do was to have nightmares. The fire. It was the fire like always. Mimiko swallowed hard to try getting some moisture in her mouth or throat. Nothing. _Feels like sandpaper_…._good thing I'm used to it since I have this dream every single night._ Mimiko stared out at the night sky; she could barely make out any stars with the bright city lights making the sky a pale blue instead of black. Mimiko exhaled audibly as she pondered over her dream. She couldn't help but think of how much it remaindered her of the other night.

- _Suddenly Mimiko and Zelman were surrounded by fire, far enough away not to actually burn her, however close enough that her skin felt like it might catch. Being scared for her life, Mimiko's body pumped adrenaline into her veins again while her heartbeat still raced. She felt similar to the time when Zelman burned down the building with Casa, Kataro, and her inside of it. Staring into the flames she suddenly had a flash back. She lost concentration on the situation at hand and was suddenly consumed by her nightmare.—_

Her heart fluttered as she remembered the aftermath of that night. How when Zelman caught her from falling and was millimeters from biting her. She blushed as she remembered his hot breath on her neck. "Please" she had said….."Please don't"…..was that what she meant? Looking back now it seemed like such a small feat. She had been arguing between her body and head on whether or not she wanted him to bite her. Her body wanted to give in to temptation; being bitten by Jiro was like nothing she had ever experienced. What would it have been like being bitten by a 500 year old vampire? Better? Worse? Creeper? She had to admit that seeing Alice's face at that time was quite…she didn't know the word to put. It wasn't completely outlandish; the connection she had with Jiro at that moment was so close that she could feel Jiro's love for Alice. She didn't just feel it; it was like she too loved Alice through the blood resonance. Her thoughts returned back to Zelman and the other night. Being surrounded by the fire in her dream was so much like that night it was hard for Mimiko to remember which one was real.

"Maybe I should tell him about it…." Mimiko's whispered to herself in the darkness.

"Why don't you tell me about it?" - -An unexpected voice returned Mimiko's whisper. It wasn't familiar and in an instant Mimiko's mind was fully awake and racing for the lamp._ That isn't Jiro or Zelman's voice_. In the darkness a hand stopped her from turning on a light. Grabbing her wrist tight enough to make her wince, her hands still raw from the previous night throbbed against the grasp.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Mimiko's scream pierced the night, she hoped to wake Jiro. Immediately remember that he had gone out for the night made her heart sink. _Why aren't you ever here when I need you Jiro!_

"My name is Masato…I'm here to finish the job my boys couldn't complete. I've been watching you Mimiko." His face was right next to Mimiko's as he was whispering in her ear "I wonder what old blood you were thinking of just now that made you blush….the _Silver Blade_ or _the Descendent of the Fire God._"

* * *

Zelman raced towards Mimiko's flat. He didn't bother following the scent, he knew too much about what was going on already to follow it. _So that what is going on….Masato is the center of all of this new commotion! _It was several miles between Zelman and Mimiko and Jiro's flat but he closed the distance in little time, sprinting across rooftops. Moving to street level as he approached the flat he slowed to a jog to assess any other new scents in the area. Jiro. Mimiiko. Kataro. And Masato. _Why are you here Masato? What has you so interested in her?_

Jiro rounded the corner sprinting towards the flat as well. A look of terror consumed his face as he approached Zelman, who was in front of the door now awaiting Jiro's arrival. He could hear Jiro's teeth grind as he passed him.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY ZELMAN!"

Jiro flew through the front door, ignoring the locks as he crashed in and was up the stairs in moments. Zelman followed closely behind him, the darkness no slowing either of them down. Without having previously having been there Zelman had no problem knowing which door lead where. He immediately moved towards Mimiko's room, Jiro simultaneously yelling for Kataro. Zelman didn't have to check to know that neither of them was going to be there. Standing in the doorway Zelman assessed the state of Mimiko's room. It was trashed. He heard Jiro standing next to him also looking in.

The mattress was flipped off from the bed and a shattered lamp on the ground. The dresser was toppled forward and its contents strewn throughout the room. Pictures that were once hanging on the wall had fallen and crashed to the floor. The last bit: the circle of blood on the broken mirror hanging from the closet door. It was without a doubt Mimiko's. Even though he was a bit upset from the situation Zelman couldn't' help but crack a grin.

"For fighting an old blood she sure put up a hell of a fight." Zelman slammed his palm against the nearby door frame, the wood cracked and splintered under his hand, the grin immediately leaving his face as he now stared towards the ground thinking out loud. "Damn it, I should have seen through this…this is my fault she's involved"

Pure rage flowed off of Jiro as he grabbed Zelman by the shoulders, shaking him out of his though-provoked trance.

"What the hell are you talking about? How do you know he is an old blood?"

"His name is Masato…and we are playing his game now"

Zelman again punched the door frame in frustration, the wood now splintering and chipping onto the ground. Subsiding to the floor Zelman sat cross legged on the floor with his hands spread out on the floor in front of them. He wore a wild look as if he didn't even see what was in front of him. He began laughing manically as he continued thinking out loud.

"This was about Kataro all along. He wouldn't have ever taken Mimiko if I hadn't shown interest in her. He must have been watching us." He glanced up at Jiro as he continued "and the only reason I showed interest in her was because I thought she was the middle of this whole thing."

Jiro again grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him to his feet. "Are you mad! What is he planning to do to Kataro?... What is he planning to do with the Lord Sage!? Tell me Zelman! How do you know all of this!?"

There was a long silence as Zelman regained himself; all the while Jiro remained in his heightened state of alert, prepared to do whatever he needed to get his brother back. Upon regaining his sanity Zelman pushed Jiro's arms away from him. He cleared his throat before answering:

"I know Masato because some 200 or so years ago, I sired him."

"He's a descendent of the War God Asura bloodline! I thought you were the last?"

"I'm the last one recognized decedent…Masato wants nothing more than to watch humans destroy themselves. He is not recognized as a decedent of the War God Asura. Long ago I knew this and yet I still made the mistake of teaching him everything I knew at the time. He is incredibly powerful for his age and completely unpredictable. In addition, he has been planning revenge on me for the past century."

Jiro's face hardened as he snatched a piece of paper and a cell phone he had noticed as he was listening. He read it out loud.

" '_If you want to see the Lord Sage or this compromiser alive again you'll wait for my call ~M'…_ this is mimiko's cellphone." He knew because of the small piece of cloth and mouse figurine that hung from it. Jiro immediately crumpled the paper in his fist, put the cell phone in his pocket, and headed for the stairs with his blade in hand. Zelman exhaled loudly but didn't move from his place by the door frame.

"You won't be able to track him. It'll just be a waste of time."

Jiro growled as he continued down the stairs, shooting a glare towards Zelman before he was out of sight

"I don't think searching for my brother is a waste of time."

Zelman huffed loudly again as he quickly caught up to Jiro at street level outside of the flat. "Suit yourself; you'll end up running in circles. Whatever he has planned, it won't be good."

And like that Zelman was out of sight and Jiro was sprinting in the direction he had come.

* * *

-Several Hours Later-

Mimiko's head was throbbing; it literally felt like her head was pulsating around her brain, squeezing it to the brink of sanity. She was lying on her side with her eyes closed; it only took her seconds to remember that she was no longer in the comfort of her bed. There was no pillow under her head, or a comforter wrapped around her. She lay still, almost to the point of holding her breath, as she allowed her mind to recap the events. Why couldn't she remember what happened? Her eyes were still closed, yet she still pressed her eyelids tighter together as if it would help her think. _What is the last thing I remember? I remember talking to Jiro when I awoke from a nightmare, but I remember laying back down. What happened next? THINK MIMIKO! What happened? I woke up and saw the moon…..AND THEN I HEARD THAT VOICE_! Immediately Mimiko remembered the fight that broke out, she remembered throwing a lamp at the man in an attempt to escape. He closed her door just before she managed to escape out of it; she continued to throw anything she could get her hands on in the room at him. She remembered her head hitting the mirror and hearing herself scream. No. that wasn't her scream….THAT WAS KATARO'S SCREAM!

Mimiko immediately sat up yelling for him.

"KATARO! Kataro where are you?"

While desperately searching the area for Kataro, Mimiko assessed the situation she was in. It was still night out. It seemed like she was in a parking garage, but there were no cars and construction equipment was scattered around the area. She had to be relatively high within the garage because she was looking over several buildings within the Special Zone. She couldn't see anyone else around her, and she couldn't hear Kataro. The rough asphalt was cold against her skin and she wished she had worn more to bed than her skimpy pajamas. Her head had stopped bleeding but she could feel the dried blood crusted down the side of her face. She moved her arm to try to wipe it off, her wrists were bound, but her ankles were free. Attempting to stand Mimiko braced her back against the half wall behind her. Half way to her feet she heard someone to her right, just out of sight.

"Whose there? Show yourself! My name is Mimiko Katsuragi and I am …"

"Oh I know who you are…..you are a compromiser with the company. Your parents were killed when you were young and you just recently learned the truth about your uncle…...you are also roommates with the unawakened Lord Sage and his big brother the Silver Blade"

Mimiko gritted her teeth as she tried to focus on the culprit who was hiding in the darkness right in front of her.

"Where is Kataro? If you hurt him, Jiro will never forgive you"

Masato stepped out of the darkness and into the circle of light cast from the dim bulb swinging in the wind above her. As he did, he couldn't help but smile as he watched her try to push herself further against the wall behind her. Cowering away from him she knew she had nowhere to run that he wouldn't immediately catch up to her. She looked to the ground as she tried to cover her blushing cheeks.

"Pathetic. You humans can't even control your own emotions when you are around us. Its proof you know. Proof that we are the dominate species on this planet and you are just the entertainment."

"You're insane!" Mimi screamed at him as she pushed against the wall. She was angry at herself for not being able to control her blushing, but she was even angrier at this sociopath of a black blood for not answering her.

_What does he want with us? Who is he after: me, Kataro, or is his real interest in Jiro_?

"Where is Kataro!? You need to tell me where he is, right now!"

The man's laughter was menacing and his eyes had a wild look to them that made a chill go down her spine

"Or else what? What will you do, you pesky little human?"

As the man was closing the little distance between them, the wild look in his eyes changed to something only describable as insanity. Mimiko quickly looked around to see if she could make a dash for an exit, she could yell out for help, but what if a red blood heard her and tried to help? She would only be putting more innocent people at risk. If Jiro was coming for them she wouldn't need to scream for him to know where she was. Knowing she couldn't make it to the stairwell door far to her left Mimiko's only option was to sink back to the ground and try to protect herself. Wrapping her arms around her legs and ducking her head, she tried to cover her neck, and any major exposed arteries. She could feel Masato approach her, he was leaning over her, hovering right over her.

"What could you do to me? I could squash you like a bug…"

Masato was cut short by Mimiko's sudden explosion of energy. A well-aimed swift kick between the legs and an undercut punch to the nose (which Jiro had taught her was more effective than trying to punch someone in the jaw when your hands are tied). Immediately scrambling to her feet, while Masato was doubled over and groaning, Mimiko sprinted towards the door. She wasn't sure if she was actually running fast or if her throbbing head made her feel like it. Every step made her head pound in agony. She was only half way when Masato was already on her, pushing her back to the ground, Mimi broke her fall with her forearms. She rolled onto her back to try to defend herself, but with her wrists tied, all she could do was block anything coming at her.

"That's quite enough M! The deal was that I needed her alive."

Another voice from the darkness chimed in. A menacing female voice that Mimiko had prayed that she would never hear again. It was literally a voice from her nightmares that had her stunned in fear. Mimiko's eyes glossed over as she stared towards the ceiling, lost in her nightmare, her muscles frozen stiff.

Cassandar Jill Warlock now stood next to Masato as he had backed away from where Mimiko was laying blankly on the floor.

"I thought I told you I need her unharmed. I need her alive" Casa stood in a long black dress with a slit up the side of her leg, her long hair still untamed down her back. As they stood next to each other Masato compulsively tried to pushed some hair back away from her face. Casa took a cautious step backwards away from his extended hand.

Masato dropped his hand back to his side, still staring at the strands of hair that were statically clinging to her face.

"That's not true, you told me you needed her blood….you could still have it if she's dead"

Casa frowned disapprovingly at him; she huffed, turning towards the inner wall of the complex to lean against.

"Not everything is ready, I need her alive until we get to the warehouse, then you can drain her for all I care. But until then, she stays alive…did you make the call?"

"I grow weary of you trying to tell me what to do"

With Casa and Masato away from Mimiko, she was shaken from her nightmarish daze by a muffled whisper in the distance.

"Mimi…Mimiko snap out of it….mimiko?"

Looking to her side Mimi saw Kataro laying down with his hands and feet bound. She couldn't see and physical harm, he didn't seem to be bleeding or in pain. She took a short sigh of relief.

"Yeah Kataro. I'm okay. How about you?" She tried to bear a small smile to make him feel better but it probably didn't make him feel much better at all.

"I'm fine Mimi. Don't worry; my brother will come for us!"

_You Kataro…your brother will come for you…._

"NO TALKING"

Masato grabbed Mimi by her hair and began dragging her away from Kataro to where she had once been sitting. Trying to grab his arm or hand to lessen the pain on her scalp Mimiko couldn't help but scream out in pain. She only hoped that a passing red blood hadn't heard. They would be no match for these two. Approaching the wall Masato pushed Mimiko towards it, attempting to break her momentum by putting her leg back; she hit the wall and heard the unquestionable sound of a breaking bone. Mimiko had broken bones before, but this felt like her bone had snapped into two pieces; and the incredible pain the followed made her wish she would pass out from it. She lay on her side gripping her right knee, as if somehow squeezing her knee would lessen the pain of the break. Masato spit on the ground next to her as he walked away.

"Don't fret little girl. This will all be over soon. I made sure to tell Jiro that if he wants either of you alive he'll have to bring your hero with him. It doesn't matter though; none of you will leave this place alive"

Mimiko wanted to shoot a threat back at him. She wanted to tell him that Jiro could kill him in an instant. She wanted to tell him that Zelman could destroy him without even thinking about it. She wanted to….._did he just call Zelman a hero?_

_I guess he is my hero from the other night. He saved me from those black bloods without even giving it a second thought. He also saved me from my thoughts at the park earlier today, but I don't know if I'd go to the extent of calling him a hero for that. _

She was unwillingly brought back to the real world with a shooting pain up her leg that dulled only to an extreme throb. She couldn't help but thinking on the positive side that at least now her head wasn't killing her. Mimi tried to loose herself in thought again but she was violently reminded of her leg. She continually wanted to look down at it, but every time stopped from doing so. She feared that she would see her leg dangling, or worse: a bone sticking out from her skin. Just the thought of a bone sticking out of her leg made her nauseous to the point that swallowing became difficult. Instead of trying to loose herself in thought to deal with the pain she attempted to focus on Masato and Casa's conversation.

"Why do you want Zelman Clock to show up anyways? He wasn't part of the plan….I don't like it when the plan changes"

Casa complained as she stared at a distance towards Kataro

"Similar to you and The Silver blade, the Crimson Eyed Zelman and I have some unfinished business"

"You can do whatever you want now that you held up your end of the deal….just don't get in my way"

There was a long stare down between the two of them before Masato finally broke it off and turned towards Mimiko

"My end of the deal is to finish my business with Crimson-eye Zelman, once that's finished you'll never see me again"

Casa smiled as she thought about Masato and Crimson-eye Zelman fighting, it would be something else to watch, she still hadn't decided who she thought would win. They were both strong competitors. She didn't real care, one way or another. Zelman Clock didn't stand between her and her goal in the Special Zone.

She had one task to accomplish and in order to do that she first needed to eliminate Jiro. He was the only one that could stop her now. She had all the ingredients that she needed, unlike last time; she had been unprepared and failed because of it. She wouldn't let that happen again. This time she would wake the Kowloon King and bring on an apocalypse of worldly proportions. These humans and vampires couldn't see the world like she saw it, now that she was a Kowloon. She had been viewing the world through half opened eyes, through shades of grey. For centuries she had been completely oblivious to her blindness. Now that her eyes were open she could see that humans falsely laid claim to the world, while vampires hid in the shadows in fear of something weaker than them. It made them weak. Hiding in the shadows had made vampire weak. The Kowloon King had opened her eyes and now she understood: the only way for vampires to be truly free of the human reign was unleashing the more unruly Kowloon children onto them. She had seen a glimpse of this awakening in Hong Kong and couldn't wait to see the finale.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: So I am so sorry this took so long to get out. This was quite possibly the hardest chapter I've written. I think I wrote it three different times before I was happy with it. Again, sorry for the delay. Thank you for staying with me!

~Jibby~

* * *

Jiro stood on a building adjacent to the parking garage he had been directed to go to by the mysterious Masato. He had been waiting for Zelman for several minutes and was growing increasingly impatient. Several minutes was probably actually only several seconds, but in Jiro's current state: patients was not a virtue. If Zelman and Jiro did not arrive at the parking garage together, and alone, Masato had promised to kill one of the hostages. Jiro had only come to a couple conclusions in the past several hours while he had been hunting for his brother. The first: Masato was an Old Blood and was not to be taken lightly. He was extremely talented at covering and confusing his sent, as Zelman had so previously pointed out. Jiro had spent more than an hour running the city confusing and losing his trail on several occasions before finally going to the Lord Sei and Cain for assistance. They had pleaded with him to tell them when and where Masato told him to meet; however, not wanting to risk his brother's or Mimiko's safety, he declined to follow instructions. The second key conclusion: Masato was not working alone, whether it had been on purpose or a slip of the tongue, on the phone Masato said 'we' when speaking of killing a hostage.

As Jiro waited he began circling the rooftops, attempting to obtain a better view of the parking garage. He hoped to catch a glimpse of Kataro or Mimiko to assess their condition, or to see Masato or his partner to hopefully get a surprise attack on one of them. As he did, he caught a glimpse of someone he knew far too well and for far too long not to recognize. He caught a glimpse of Casa as he was turning away from where he was standing. It was as if it was in slow motion as his brain processed the information. Casa! The one who betrayed them. The one who murdered Alice without even thinking twice about it. She was the one he had been waiting for; waiting for the day he could finally kill her and end his vendetta. Without hesitation Jiro unsheathed his blade and lunged through the breaking dawn towards her.

Landing across the parking garage from Casa, he didn't let a moment pass before raising his blade and charging towards her. As she was prepared for his arrival, Casa too had her blade drawn and easily blocked his unplanned attack. Jiro leapt backwards away from her katana, calming his breath and trying to release his clenched jaw.

_Calm yourself Jiro; this is why you failed last time. Calm the animal; I can't rely on pure strength and speed to destroy her. Attacking her without a plan won't get me any revenge. _

Jiro took a deep breath as he calmed his body. He didn't, however, lower his blade in the event that Casa decided to attack.

"so you are the one helping Masato, why have you returned here Casa…..you have no business in the Special Zone. You aren't welcome here." Pure hatred dripped off of every word that he spoke towards her. His teeth barely being able to part against his clenched jaw.

"I see Zelman must have told you a little about me if you already know my actual name, I never did like going by M anyways."

A voice came from Jiro's far right, it took his raged focus off of Casa, but he was sure to keep an eye on her. Jiro now took note that Mimiko was lying on the ground to his back right, she looked injured and in pain, she didn't seem to take note of his arrival. Kataro was to his back left; he seemed in much better condition and was wide-eyed staring towards Masato.

"Zelman isn't here. You didn't hold up your end of the bargain. I said you had to arrive together or we would kill a hostage."

Swiftly moving towards where Mimiko was lying, Masato was by her side in moments, grabbing her by the throat. Jiro, however, was right behind him snarling that he wasn't going to have a chance to harm either of them. As Jiro went to grab Masato's shoulder to throw him off of her, flames shot up between them. Encircling Mimiko and Masato, Jiro was forced to back away from the red hot flares.

"Masato don't! I need her blood; the deal was to kill the kid!" -Casa had been charging towards Masato, screaming at him as she went.

She too was abruptly halted by the flames that were now white with heat and almost reaching the ceiling. Jiro momentarily debated the consequences of pushing through the fire. He closed his eyes and began yelling as he moved to slice through the flames. Yet, just as he was about to, the flames subsided. It was as if they were consumed by a deep blue color and then burned out to the ground. Jiro didn't waste time to grab Masato and throwing him off from Mimiko, who was now seated grasping at her throat. Masato smirked as he stood up, wiping the dust and any dirt from his clothes and compulsively fixing his hair.

"Zelman old friend, you are here…come out, come out, wherever you are."

Stepping out form the darkness surrounding the staircase, Zelman was wearing jeans and a dark shirt that made him almost invincible in the shadows. While he was taking several steps towards the group, Casa took the opportunity to move out of striking distance of Jiro, and towards Masato. As Casa approached Masato she suddenly took a swing at him, landing a fist on the side of his jaw and sending him briefly to his knee.

"You asshole, I told you I needed her alive!" Casa gritted her teeth as she regained herself and stepped away from him to not let her guard down towards Jiro. As Masato stood, a menacing look crossed his face that was similar to his previous insanity. He smiled towards Zelman as he closed the distance between them.

"I knew you couldn't resist coming to see me Zelman. After all these years, I knew you would want to see what I had up my sleeve. That was a pretty cool trick you learned, extinguishing my flames…..at least I know you haven't grown rusty over the years"

Zelman glanced at Kataro and Mimiko. "You two have what you want. Jiro and I are here….you should let Kataro go." Having just heard Casa say she needed Mimiko, he didn't want to push his luck asking for both of their freedom, and considering Mimiko's state, she wouldn't be able to leave under her own power anyways.

Masato shrugged glancing quickly at Casa who was no longer paying attention to him, but had her eyes glued on Jiro's every movement. "It wasn't my idea to snatch him anyways…..Cassandra just wanted him to make sure Jiro showed." Without hesitation Zelman quickly moved to the boy curled up on the cold floor nearby. As there were no objections from Casa or Masato; Zelman quickly untied Kataro, who was uninjured. Casa and Jiro stared unwaveringly at each other, both tense at the inevitable fight to come.

"Kataro, can you make it to a Company branch from here?"

Kataro nodded and attempted a grin to show that he was capable.

"Good, go as quickly as you can and don't look back."

With that Kataro was on his feet and down the first flight of stairs before Zelman was back on his feet. A tangible wave of relief flooded off from Jiro of knowing his brother had escaped to safety. His shoulders relaxed slightly as he held his katana towards Casa. Mistaking his flood of relief for distraction Casa attacked wildly from below attempting to slice up Jiro. Knowing that his brother was now safe from this mayhem allowed Jiro to become hyper-focused on the fight. He easily blocked Casa's graze and side stepped to place himself between her and Mimiko.

"You have lured us here to fight, let Mimiko go too"

Casa audibly growled at the thought.—"HA! Only if you can beat me."

Jiro charged at Casa, when their katanas clashed together he made sure to push her back to bring their fight as far away from Mimiko as he could. When he finally stopped pressing on he had pushed them far away from Mimko, Masato, and Zelman. Casa and Jiro continued there long anticipated battle, neither gaining the upper hand for more than one or two strikes.

Meanwhile, Masato continued trying to patronize Zelman – "I'm actually quite glad to see you Zelman, after all of these years I think I've actually come to miss you"

Zelman smirked. "Until I caught your scent yesterday I hadn't thought about you in a long time M, I was hoping someone had already taken the opportunity to kill you."

Masato laughed manically, his eyes dilating and gaining an edge of insanity as he sent white hot fire burning towards the enemy standing across from him. Zelman quickly blocked the oncoming flames, but instead with a cooler red/orange wall of fire instead of the previous blue hot flames. Masato again sent a string of flames towards Zelman, this time white and blue. Again, Zelman blocked it with red flames and side stepped heat that made it through his blockade.

A sudden realization and rage crossed over Masato's face as he glared down at Zelman in disgust. "I've waited more than a century to repay you, I'm stronger than you Zelman Clock….and yet you have the nerve to come here on an empty stomach. I want you to fight me with everything you've got Zelman Clock." His frustration seemed to grow exponentially; he screamed at him – "I didn't want you half dead when you got here!"

"I didn't know you would be in the Special Zone tonight. You should have sent me an invitation"

A moment of silence passed as the two glared at each other. The two black bloods were both sizing up the other. Attempting to not escalate the situation too rapidly while still getting what they wanted. Zelman was determining through observing his movements how different Masato was from when they knew each other. He was slowly coming to the conclusion that he was quite the same vampire he once knew. Masato was doing the same about Zelman, and although he was different than the vampire Masato once knew, he could tell Zelman still had the same core desires had had all those years ago.

Masato replied humorously: "I did, in the past two hours you couldn't find a halfway decent human to feed on?"

"I was fasting….waiting for something a bit more…refined than usual." Zelman couldn't help but glance towards Mimiko as he stated this, thinking she couldn't hear him.

Masato motioned to Mimiko – "well go ahead then. I don't plan on leaving here, or letting you leave here, without one of us being dead. I wouldn't want to have come all this way to have you die on me in the first 30 seconds. I'm sure you can tell how much stronger I am then when we were partners in crime….you'll need to be at your best if you even want a chance!"

Zelman couldn't help but lick his lips at the thought of Mimiko's blood. The thought of the strength he would get from a virgin's blood was intoxicating. He was kneeling by Mimiko's side in moments. He hovered over her momentarily in a blood thirsty daze but was abruptly shaken from it by her pain stricken look. Noticing her leg was broken and twisted in a very unnatural state Zelman was left with few options.

"Compromiser, compromiser, compromiser….tsk tsk…I have no idea how you get yourself in such situations as these."

Mimiko rolled her eyes in frustration – "He says he knows you? Is this maniac actually a friend of yours?"

"Typical, more worried about knowing your target then having concern of your own safety" Zelman's glance met Mimiko's for a long moment before he answered her. Zelman could tell Mimiko was trying to calculate the severity of the danger she was in. "Masato and I were friends a long, long time ago…I had been hoping he was dead. I didn't expect him to team up with Cassandra to get my attention"

Mimiko closed her eyes and bit her lip as a flood of pain from her mangled leg surged through her. Her breath was quick and shallow. "I don't think I'll be able to get out of her on my own like Kataro"

Zelman glanced over his shoulder at Masato as he could feel eyes glaring through his back. "Well, hurry up already, we don't have all day for you to feed." Zelman knew that Mimiko was at the center of all of this, he just didn't know that she was going to be the victim of it all.

"Mimiko, I rarely call upon owed favors…."

"Just do it." – Although she looked like she was in pain, she was still quite lucid. The bone in her leg was almost punching threw the skin, but she was quite strong. She had obviously been following their conversation and knew what Zelman was after. She thought that it must be something with old bloods, or maybe it was just stubborn black bloods, that wait until they are almost useless in a fight to feed.

Zelman moved in to feed on the virgin blood, his mouth only millimeters away from her neck, her scent was overpowering. He had placed his hands on her shoulder and neck, half wanting to hold her down as he fed, half wanting to pull her closer to him. He hesitated; he hadn't wanted it to be like this. He preferred his food coming to him; he wanted her to beg him for it. He wanted her to be desperate. He wanted her to need him; he didn't want it to be the other way around. A long moment had passed without Zelman realizing it.

"JUST DO IT ALREADY!"

Suddenly jarred back to reality by Mimiko's scream, Zelman instantly and instinctively dug his fangs into her soft neck. His lips pressing against her neck, he wouldn't have been able to stop if he wanted to once her heard her moan as he began to drink. He pushed her back against wall by her shoulder with one hand and covering her mouth with the other.

Mimiko's blood instantly seemed to boil as she shut her eyes, at first in pain and then in pleasure. This was nothing like when Jiro bit her, she hadn't expected it to be, but it was an entirely different. Jiro was cold, but Zelman had a raging heat that seemed to pass over her body, her neck felt like it was on fire where he drank from her. She wanted to scream out, but found that she couldn't. She had forgotten about the pain of her leg as her dreams of fire came back into her conscious mind. Fire engulfed the blackness, but this time, it wasn't Jiro or Kataro she saw in her visions, it was Zelman. She began hearing whispering in the darkness surrounding the fire, she struggled to understand them. At first she thought she couldn't understand them because the voice, of which she didn't recognize, was so quite; but she soon realized it was in a different language. The whispering continued as she struggled to understand what they were trying to say to her, and even though her body still burned, her visions of fire went to darkness. When the whispering finally stopped, she was left with only darkness.

-To be continued….


End file.
